More Than Friends
by shadowkid1313
Summary: Oliver Wood and Hannah Parker are back again for another year at Hogwarts. And people are starting to have crushes on each other. This can't be good. At least not for anyone's sanity. I promise there will be more Terah and Harry in this one.
1. Chapter 1

Yay! Year four! Sorry guys, I had to skip years two and three. I didn't have enough ideas, and then it'd take me forever to update. So here it is! Chapter 1 of year 4!

Please note that I'm writing this at ten at night and I'm so sleep deprived and have been all week.

So... I'm not gonna tell you what happens. Read!

* * *

Chapter 1

Oliver Wood sat in his family room, looking at his friends. Kaden Casmyn was sprawled out in front of the TV with Danniell Krintol. Both of their eyes were glazed over as they watched the pictures flash on the screen. Raheem Luden was pondering over which piece to move next. Oliver sighed as he waited for his friend to make a move. After a minute, one of the black pieces moved, but not by his doing.

"Bishop to D5," Hannah Parker said firmly. Raheem glared at her as his bishop moved to D5.

"Back out, this ain't your game!" Raheem said, shoving Hannah in the head. He looked back at his pieces. "Can you move back?" he asked. There was no movement. "Please?" The bishop stayed still.

"Thanks, Hannah," Oliver said, grinning at her. Raheem gave her a look of great disgust. She smiled and noggied his head.

"Sorry, best friend rules," Hannah said. She and Oliver had been best friends since she was six weeks and he was six months. Hannah's real last name was Potter. Harry Potter was her younger brother and she had a twin sister, Terah, but she was in Ravenclaw while the six of them were in Gryffindor.

"Hey! You wouldn't cheat for me!" Nanda Topoly complained, who was next to them.

"Be quiet," Kaden muttered thickly.

The four of them looked over to see that Kaden and Danniell had fallen asleep. For being best friends, they looked completely different. Kaden was Japanese, he'd actually been born there, and had jet black hair and his skin was very tan. Danniell was on the other side of the spectrum, being blond and fair. But Danniell was taller than Kaden, actually taller than all of them. He was nearly six foot while all the other boys were around 5 foot 8 inches. Raheem was the only one who was African, and had been born in Africa. Nanda was the other that was born out of the country, in Hungary. Hannah, Oliver, and Danniell were the ones who were native born to the United Kingdom.

Oliver and Raheem ignored Kaden and went back to their chess game. Hannah took advantage of Kaden and Danniell sleeping and stole back the remote.

"It's my house anyway," she muttered, pulling the remote out of Kaden's hand. She flipped up a couple channels until she got to a comedy show. Hannah had lived with Oliver for the past nine years after her parents, Lily and James, had been killed by Lord Voldemort.

"But they don't care," Nanda said, pulling a few strands of her blonde hair in front of her face and started to braid it. They were already in their pajamas, which for Nanda were a lime green tank top and black shorts. Hannah's were a pair of Oliver's gray shorts and a black shirt. "It's what we get for hanging out with them so much."

"Yeah, remember how we did meet?" Hannah asked.

Nanda nodded her head. "Yeah, I wouldn't talk to anyone."

"You were like deathly shy," Oliver said from the other side of the room. "Hannah had to be your interpreter."

"But I loved it!" Hannah insisted, putting her arm around Nanda's shoulders.

Raheem muttered, "And now we can't get her to shut up."

"I heard that Raheem Xavier Luden!" Nanda said loudly, glaring at him. Raheem rolled his eyes and moved one of his pawns.

"Go back to your show," Raheem ordered as Oliver took one of his rooks.

"Yeah, let's remember my parents are sleeping," Oliver said. And so are my brothers and Nikki."

Nanda sighed and continued braiding her hair. She looked back at the TV but was instantly bored. "Hey, give me the remote." Hannah handed it over and Nanda flipped through the channels. But since it was midnight, there were only a few good shows on, but Nanda didn't like any of them. "This sucks. There's never anything on."

"Maybe we should get to bed," Hannah offered.

Oliver nodded. "Yeah, I'm getting pretty tired. Raheem?"

"Why not? I'm gonna loose this anyway." He shoved the pieces off the board and into the bag that Oliver held open. "And what about those other two?"

"Leave them," Hannah said. "You know they hate being woken up.

Oliver grabbed a bunch of blankets and pillows out of the closet, tossed two on top of Kaden and Danniell, and threw the rest at the others. They all grabbed a pillow and a few blankets, then curled up together on the floor. In a few minutes, they were dead asleep.

* * *

"C'mon, get up!" a rough Scottish voice boomed through the family room where the six of them were out cold. "Oliver! You guys will be late!" 

"Ten minutes, Da," Oliver groaned, shoving his head under his pillow. Oliver's dad, Anthony Wood, pulled all the blankets off them. He grabbed Oliver's arm and made him stand up. "Da!"

"It's eight. You guys need to be up. You've got half an hour."

Hannah's eyes snapped open. She jumped up and started getting everyone up. For Kaden, who was so stubborn he slapped her in the arm, she poked him in the back of his neck, making him jerk awake. Danniell was easy to get up, as he'd been up for about ten minutes already. Raheem, however, was impossible. So she woke up Nanda and together the two of them started slapping his face.

"Get up!"

"C'mon! Up and at 'em! Whatever that means."

"Wakey wakey, eggs and backey!"

"That's so stupid," Raheem muttered. He opened his eyes. "Time to go?"

"Yeah, now," Mr. Wood said. "You guys all have your trunks packed?"

There was a muttering of "Yes," as they got up and went to separate areas to change. They all threw their pajamas into one bag that Mr. Wood took to the car, which their trunks were already in from the night before. Since Mrs. Wood already had prepared them breakfast for the road, they all trudged out into the bright sunlight towards the car they'd be in for the next two hours. They flopped into the car, Kaden, Danniell, and Raheem in the far back, Nanda and Hannah in the middle, and Oliver in the front seat with his dad. Mrs. Wood was staying home with Oliver's three siblings, but she stayed outside and waved to them as Mr. Wood pulled the car out of the driveway and down the street.

Thanks a lot to magic, the trip that would normally take a few hours took only a little over two. The six fourteen year olds slept through the entire ride and when Mr. Wood pulled into King's Cross, he had to wake them up all over again.

"Here already?" Danniell muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Cool."

He clambered out of the car with the others. Mr. Wood got them trolley and they all pushed their trunks, as well as their owls, except for Nanda's cat, into the train station. They walked towards the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten when they saw three boys with a man who looked very similar to Mr. Wood.

"Michael!" Anthony shouted.

Michael Wood looked over his shortest son's head to see his older brother. "Hey, Anthony. What's with the huge group today?"

"Yeah, that's Hannah's idea," Anthony said. "So, Curt, you ready for your last year?"

"I dunno," Curt, the oldest, said. "Can't be as bad as fifth year. Right Mitchell?"

"Shut up," Mitchell said.

He was the oldest of the Wood boys, even though he had an older brother. But there'd been no other boys when Curt had been born. However, with Mitchell, when he was born, his aunts had been pregnant with David and Kevin. A few months later, they would be a fourth one, Andrew. And when the last two, Oliver and Derek, had been born, they decided to make them the Wood boys. Honestly, Curt didn't care he was one. Besides, it was usually just brothers. So since it was cousins, it didn't count for him.

"Curt, be nice," Michael warned his eldest. "And no more trouble this year. I mean it."

"Yeah, Da," Curt said." He then pushed his cart into the barrier and vanished.

Michael shook his head. "I swear, one day tha' boy's gonna get'in so much trouble it'll cost 'im." He looked back at Anthony. "Well, wha' are we waitin' fer?"

"C'mon, you lot," Mr. Wood said. "Go."

Mitchell and Hunter followed their brother through the barrier. After them came Oliver, Hannah, Nanda, Danniell, Raheem, and Kaden. On the other side of the barrier, there were hundreds of kids getting their stuff onto the train and saying goodbye to their parents. Hannah's owl, Diana, opened her eyes at the noise and hooted, obviously very annoyed with the noise. Echo, Oliver's, was just being his usual calm self, or maybe it was because KC was right next to him.

Mitchell was the first on the train with his stuff. He went down the corridor a little bit until he found a compartment where two boys were sitting. One of them had scars all over his face, hands, arms, and legs. The other was playing with a lighter.

"Mornin', you lot," Mitchell said, pushing the door open. David put his lighter out and stuffed it into his pocket. Mitchell turned towards Kevin. "And what happened to you in the week I didn' see ya?"

"Fell off the roof," Kevin said, pointing to where there was a long, half healed gash just over his left ear. "Into the bushes."

"Anything else?" Oliver asked as he appeared behind Mitchell.

"Loads, but I'll tell you later," Kevin said. "Are you guys with us this time?"

"We've been over this before, there's no room," Oliver said. "We'll be in that one," he said, jabbing his thumb behind his head to the compartment where Kaden and Raheem were stowing everyone's trunks. He turned around and joined the other six with getting everyone's stuff into the top. "They should let us use magic to do this."

"But that'd be too easy," Kaden said. "I think this is meant to build self character."

"Or kill us," Hannah said, lifting the end of Oliver's trunk with Danniell. "Whichever works, I guess." She stood up on the seat and threw it into the rack. Brushing her brown hair out of her eyes, she picked up her owl and set her up top with Echo. "Be good, Diana." Diana hooted sleepily and then stuck her head under her wing.

Hannah collapsed into her seat just as Oliver started to pass around the breakfast bars his mom had sent with them. "They're not the greatest, but it's better than waiting till lunch. "He took a bite out of his and sat down next to Hannah. "Anyone got the time?"

Danniell glanced down at his watch. "Ten till."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go find me cousins," Oliver muttered, getting up. He walked across the corridor to where Kevin, David, and Mitchell were sitting. "David, help me find Andrew and Derek."

"Sure," David said, stuffing his lighter into his pocket. The two got up and headed for the platform. They jumped onto the platform and had to quickly move aside as three students rushed onto the train. David rolled his eyes. "Midget first years."

"What's that about midgets?" Andrew asked from behind them. He grinned and walked over to them. "What's up?" he asked.

"Not much," David said. "Kevin fell off the roof."

"Tell me something I don't expect," Andrew said. Then, as if remembering something, he turned around and yelled, "Oy! Derek! Found 'em!"

And the last Wood boy arrived. Derek brushed his loose hair out of his eyes to get a better look at his cousins. That was when he noticed a scar going along David's forehead. "Hey, what happened?"

"What?" David asked.

"Your head, dumbass," Derek responded, poking David in the scar.

"David, did you fall off the roof with him?!" Andrew asked, amazed. "Don't let him switch trends from how many scars he can get to how many he can give others."

David covered Andrew's face with his hand. "Shut up. It wasn't my fault." He turned around and stalked back into the train.

Andrew glanced at Oliver and Derek. "Great. That only means Kevin did it on purpose."

"I hope that doesn't become a game," Oliver said. He gazed down at the two trunks. "Well, let's get in. Everyone's responsible for his shit." And he would've gotten on the train and run down the hall if Andrew hadn't grabbed his shirt.

"Seniority. Get it." He pointed to his trunk and got onto the train.

Oliver sighed and grabbed his cousin's trunk. Then he grinned at Derek. "Better idea. Watch." And he picked it up and threw the trunk into Andrew's chest. "Hey, Andrew, guess what? I increased my bench by thirty pounds this summer." Andrew was bent over, clutching his chest and wheezing. Derek shook his head and pulled his trunk onto the train.

"You are idiots," he said. "C'mon, Andrew, you're blocking traffic." He grabbed Andrew under his arm and pulled him up. "How you feel?"

Andrew took a deep breath. "I hate you, Oliver."

"No, you don't. You hate America."

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, that too." He grabbed his trunk as Oliver began to lead the way towards the compartments. "You seen Webb? Or Cricket?" Webb and Cricket were Andrew's best friends.

"No, maybe American agents abducted them," Derek replied. Just then a boy with dark brown hair came up from behind and pulled Andrew's hood over his head. "And then gave them back when they realized that they're crazy."

"Hey, mate, what's new?" Cricket asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes. Andrew yanked the hood off his head. "Sorry, that was Webb's idea."

"No! It was Froggie's!" Webb argued, throwing Cricket into the side of the train. Oliver and Derek rolled their eyes as they watched their cousin and his two best friends fighting. A minute later, Froggie had appeared next to Derek. His hair was as dark as Cricket's.

"Was this my idea?" Froggie asked.

Derek shrugged. "I don't know. Did you actually hear that all the way from over where you were?"

Froggie shook his head and grabbed Cricket's arm. "Why do you always blame shit on me?"

"Because you're younger," Cricket answered. "Lemme go, bro!" He tried to attack at Webb, but Froggie threw him back. "Dammit, stop using my weights! I'm the one who's supposed to stay in shape." He and Froggie were brothers, Cricket being the older one. "Just let me hit him!"

"Mum's watching," Froggie warned. Cricket looked over his shoulder to see his mother talking with some other woman.

"No she ain't!"

Froggie threw his brother at the train. "Let's go before it leaves without us." He followed his brother in. Andrew grabbed his trunk and he and Webb both took it into the train. Oliver helped Derek with his and the six of them were soon at the two compartments. They stored the trunks up in the racks, and then Oliver went over to where his other friends were.

"Are we leaving yet?" Hannah asked. Oliver showed her his watch. "Yay! One more minute!"

"Why are you so excited for school?" Oliver mumbled, sitting next to her.

"I'll tell you later," Hannah said. Just then, the bell whistled and the guards began to shut the doors. Hannah and Oliver went over to his cousins' side to wave to Oliver's dad and uncles. Then the train was moving and heading towards Hogwarts.

* * *

And that's the end of chapter 1. It'll get better and more exciting, I promise. Just think about the title of the story. Smile! And review please! 


	2. Chapter 2

Okay here's the second chapter. It's still the train ride, but it's fun! Really quick things. I've started writing for the Wood boys to have accents, so it might be a little harder to read. Also, anything underlined is in Gaelic. In this chapter I'll have it written that what was said was Gaelic, but from now on, anything underlined is Gaelic.

* * *

Chapter 2

David sat down next to Kevin and kicked his feet up onto the window ledge. The train had started to move. He waved at his parents who were standing with his uncles on the platform. Kevin hardly acknowledged his parents; he was still angry at them for getting divorced last year. Andrew's little sister Willow was crying as she waved goodbye to her brother. Andrew grinned and gave her a little wave. Then the platform was out of sight.

"So, Mitchell, what was so important that you had to call me and start screaming at me in Gaelic last month?" David asked casually.

"Oh, that," Mitchell said. "Kevin pushed me off the roof and broke me arm." Kevin grinned and Mitchell smacked him across the face.

Andrew sighed and looked over at Derek who muttered something and moved his fist over his heart. Andrew rolled his eyes and said, "Ain't yer fault." Then he looked back at David. "But what about this girl you met?" David shook his head and raised an eyebrow. "She pretty?"

"I guess," David said. He pulled out a digital camera from his bag and turned it on. Then he showed them a picture on it. The girl had shinny black hair that fell to her shoulders and brownish-green eyes. She was very pretty, and Andrew couldn't understand why David didn't say yes.

"You must be gay," Andrew replied. "She's gorgeous!"

"She ain't me type," David answered back. "And I'm not gay. How could I be? I've had more girlfriends than you!"

Andrew shrugged. "Okay, that's fair. But give me a second. I wan' teh see wot Oliver thinks of her." He snatched David's camera and went over to Oliver's compartment, where everyone was in an argument about Quidditch. "Oy, Ollie, hate ta break yer rant, but I nee' yer opinion." He shoved the camera under his nose. "Wot do yeh think of her?"

"She's alright," Oliver answered. "Why?"

"Course she's alright fer yeh," Andrew said casually. "But why don' yeh jus' say she's pretty?"

"She's not me type," Oliver answered.

Andrew smacked his cousin in the head. "Stop spendin' so much time wit David! Yeh two are givin' the same answers all the time! Drive me nuts!" He glanced over at Hannah quickly, then back at Oliver. "Well, who do yeh like if yeh don' like her? Who could meet yer impossible standards?"

"I don' have impossible standards," Oliver said coolly.

"Not yers. Hannah's," Andrew said.

Oliver's mouth dropped open. "What the hell's the matter with yeh? I don' car wot she thinks!"

Andrew scoffed. "Sure yeh do." He turned around and headed back to his compartment. Angry, Oliver got up and followed his cousin. This was obviously what Andrew wanted, because as soon as Oliver was in, he shut the door to the compartment and locked it. "Alright, tell us the truth."

"Wot truth?" Oliver asked. "Andrew Jonathan Wood, if this is one of yer crazy ideas ta get me ta do somethin' stupid, I should jus' hit yeh now!"

"Calm down, idiot, we jus' wanna talk," he replied.

Mitchell turned to look at him. "We do?"

"Yes, we do," Andrew said, not looking at Mitchell. "Mate, go back ta writin' in tha' stupid journal of yers while we talk if yeh ain't so keen on it." Mitchell shrugged and scratched a few words onto the page of his notebook "Alright, mate, how long have yeh liked Hannah?"

"I don' like Hannah," Oliver said. Andrew didn't look convinced. "I don'!"

"Then why d'ja break up with those girls? Yeh knew Hannah didn' like 'em."

"They were bitches ta her!" Oliver said, getting more and more red faced. "I ain't gonna loose me bes' friend o'er a stupid girl!"

"Okay, okay, chill out, mate, jus' a question," Andrew said. "Yeh sure yeh don' like her?"

"I'm sure," Oliver said, still red. His hands flexed into fists for a moment, and then relaxed.

David glanced over at them. "Then how come yeh was so pissed last year when she dated that Verness guy from Ravenclaw? Yeh'd never shut up about it."

"Cause he was an idiot," Oliver said. He got up so that he and Andrew were at eyelevel. "Look, I don' like Hannah. She's like me sister."

"Would it piss you off if I told you Emerson Krant, Marcus Flint, Jaime Hedricks, and a load of other guys like her?" Andrew asked.

Oliver spoke too quickly. "No. And I don't even know who they are! Well, except for Flint. And that's because of David."  
"Hey, I'm not asking you to hate the guy, I just don't like him!" David said. "Merlin, what's with this family and unanimous decisions?"

Andrew folded his arms and smirked. "And Kevin knows a load of other guys as well. Want us ta list 'em?"

"I'm good," Oliver said. He sighed and turned back to the door. "If tha's it, I'm goin' back ta me compartment. Bother me when yeh've got somethin' better." He left and crossed the corridor to where his friends were. As soon as the door was closed, Andrew sat back down.

"He totally fancies her," he said.

His cousins nodded and muttered in agreement.

As Oliver came in, Hannah looked up and was surprised to see that he looked a little angry. He sat next to her but wouldn't look at her. She put her hand on his arm and he glanced up.

"What did they do?" she asked casually. "Did Kevin hit you with a rock again?"

"No, jus' interrogatin' me 'bout useless crap," Oliver said. He smiled at her. "It's no big deal. They're me cousins after all."

Hannah nodded. "Yeah, that's true." She grinned and rested her head on Oliver's shoulder. "I'm going to sleep. Good night, pillow."

"I ain't yer pillow," Oliver said. Hannah slapped his cheek. "Yeh'd think after three years of this I'd know ta be quiet."

"You're just a bad pillow," Hannah said. She closed her eyes. "But you're very comfy. Does that make you feel better?"

Oliver shrugged his other shoulder so he wouldn't bother Hannah. "Yeah, sure. Hey, Hannah where's me penguin?"

"Good night!" Hannah yelled and then she was quiet. Oliver sighed and put his elbow on the rest of the chair. She'd taken his penguin in first year and he hadn't seen it since. He glanced down at her and smiled at how easily she'd fallen asleep. He really hoped his cousins wouldn't come in any time soon.

* * *

"Dammit, look at them! She got her head on his shoulder!" Derek said. He was lying on his back on the couch. Froggie was on the floor next to him, tearing off a chunk of a licorice wand with his teeth. "Andrew, you're totally right." 

"When have I not been?" Andrew replied smugly. He turned to David and held out his hand. "Let's see this girl again." Grudgingly, David handed him his camera. Andrew turned it on and got to the picture of the girl. "So is she Spanish?"

"Nope, she couldn' speak it," David said. "I had ta teach her. Only got a few things in. But she could speak German a little."

"Yay German!" Kevin said from his chair, where he was reading a German magazine.

Andrew rolled his eyes and scrolled through David's other pictures. The girl was in a few of them. "So why was she in Spain?"

"Her family had just moved there," David explained. He took his camera back. "They move a lot. I think she lived in Scotland for a while. And then Italy. And France, but that was for a few months."

Andrew opened a bag of Bertie Bott's and took a few. "That must suck. Why do they move so much?"

"Don't know, she never said."

"She a witch or not?"

"Yep," David said. "She went to Beaux batons for a while, and then some Italian school. Actually, she may still be at the Italian place."

"Why not send her here? It's closer," Mitchell said, but he didn't really seem to care. He was still writing in his book.

David shrugged. "Dunno. I think she's gone there the longest. So she's got a load of friends there. Still… it must suck to move all the time."

"Think she'll come here?" Andrew asked.

"I think someone like her! You don't even know her name!"

Andrew punched David in the forehead. "Shut up. Now what's her name."

"I don't think I should tell yeh, yeh jus' hit me!" David said.

Cricket sighed. "Give him the name or he'll bitch about it for weeks."

David folded his arms and kicked up his legs to keep Andrew away. "No way."

Kevin thunked David on his head with his fist. "Tell him. Now! You don' share a dorm with him! I ain't gonna listen ta him complain all nigh'!"

David pushed Kevin scarred hand away. "Sit down, shut up, and I'll tell yeh!" Andrew did so. David glanced over at Kevin and muttered in Gaelic, "He must really like her."

"No shit," Kevin replied.

Andrew's brown eyes narrowed. "Yeh got five seconds before I knock yer front teeth outta yeh face! I can understan' yeh!" Then he threw a chocolate frog box at David.

While David and Andrew bickered, Derek and Mitchell were watching them. Derek was a lot shorter than Mitchell, but Mitchell was also a year and a half older than him; Derek was 14 and Mitchell would be turning 16 on the 12th. Mitchell was also becoming more muscular and starting to look like how a 16 year old teenager should while Derek still had his a little of his "baby fat." They weren't the closest, but they still got along.

"I didn't know David knew Gaelic," Mitchell muttered.

"Neither did I," Derek said. "He speaks in Spanish all the time."

"Well, he lived there from three to seven."

"When did he learn Gaelic?"

"Maybe from all the times we kept speaking it around him."

Mitchell and Andrew knew Gaelic the best out of all the Wood boys. All of them knew enough of it to get the gist of what was being said. Well, all of them except for Hannah. They often spoke it around her just to make her mad.

"You're lucky, though, mate," Derek said quietly so that Froggie, who was the closet, couldn't hear them.

"Wot do yeh mean?" Mitchell asked.

Derek glanced over at him and carefully started to sign letters with his fingers. _T…E…R…_

"Stop it!" Mitchell hissed. Derek smirked. "How did yeh find out? I ain't obvious 'bout it, am I?"

"Just very subtle," Derek said. "These idiots can't notice shit. Not even if it danced naked in front of 'em. Don' worry, I won' tell 'em. Yeh jus' owe me."

"When yeh say _"them"_ do yeh include Hannah? 'Cause I'm more 'fraid of her than them." Mitchell jerked his head at where Andrew was becoming angrier with David since he still hadn't given the name. "Yeh be'er mean Hannah!"

"Okay, okay, I'll include Hannah," Derek caved. "Here, let's make it easier. I won' speak 'bout it. But if you screw up and make it obvious, it'd be yer own fault."

"Hey, I ain't like Oliver. I don' parade it around that I like her."

"Who do yeh like?" Kevin suddenly asked.

"Amelia Peters."

"Her?! She's disgusting!" Andrew said, looking revolted. Amelia Peters was 4th year Slytherin girl. "Mitchell, yeh can' be serious!"

"Course I ain't," Mitchell said. "It ain't none of yer business, so keep yeh nose outta it." Then he quickly changed the subject. "David, yeh give him the name yet?"

"Nope," David answered. Andrew then grabbed David's hair by his gelled spikes. He pulled David's head down and twisted his shoulder in the other way. "Ow! Ow! Okay, her name's Kristen! Now lemme go!" Andrew let go of his head and sat back down. David sighed and kicked his feet up onto Cricket's head. "Merlin, I hope she never has to meet yeh."

"Why?"

"Cause she'd jump off the Astronomy Tower after dealing with yeh fer two days." David stood up and walked towards the door. "I'm gonna go see wot they're talkin' 'bout o'er there." He slid the door open and then joined Oliver and Hannah. "How you lot doin'?"

Kaden kicked a bunch of the candy off a seat. "Okay. Bored right now. What was Andrew doing to you?"

"The headlock? Oh, long story short, I met this girl in Spain and Andrew thinks she's pretty and he wanted her name. I wouldn't give it to him and so hence, the headlock. Very painful, actually," he said, rubbing his head where Andrew had grabbed his hair. "What've you been talking about?"

"Vacations," Nanda replied.

"Lemme guess, you went to Hawaii again?" David said. Nanda nodded. "As usual. How about you, Raheem? Seen yer friends… what're their names again?"

"Kafele and Mikaili," Raheem said. "They're fine."

"They're crazy," Danniell interrupted.

David sighed and glanced over to Danniell. "What'd they do this time?"

"Well, this summer, they decided to go cliff diving and they dragged me along with them," Raheem explained. "Like I ever have a choice once they decide what to do."

"So, Kevin cliff dives all the time," David said.

Oliver scoffed. "That's wot I said ta 'im."

"How high were you up?"

"We only jumped from about fifty feet. But there was a waterfall right next to the rock. And they were jumping into the waterfall. Fucking idiots," Raheem said, relaxing into his seat more. "Kafele nearly drowned. After that we went home. But before we went home, Kafele made us promise that we'd jump even higher once we could do magic outside of school."

"Do they have to be seventeen, too?" David asked.

"Yep," Raheem said. "So I guess I won't be around for seventh year, mates. Sorry."

"No!" Nanda yelled, pulling Raheem into a hug. "No! Raheem, you're not allowed to go cliff diving ever, ever again. No! You can't die!"

"Calm down, Nanda, we ain't doin' anythin' until we can use magic."

"What good would magic do if you're dead?!"

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Nanda, I think yer bein' a bit over dramatic."

"Raheem, you have to stay alive at least until graduation!"

"Nanda, do yeh not see wot he means 'bout the whole se'enteen thing? It's so he can use magic and not die when he hits the woter. Now calm down before we get the sedatives!" Oliver ordered. Nanda smiled and let go of Raheem. "Well, don' let Kevin know 'bout it or he'll wanna go wit yeh."

"On second thought, invite him, won't you? Maybe he'll get a scar," David offered.

Hannah looked out the window. "Are we there yet? I'm so bored."

David checked his watch. "Two hours. Go to sleep on Ollie's shoulder. He's yer pillow, ain't he." Oliver glared at David. "I didn't say shit, mate. Yer lucky Andrew ain't here." Hannah put her head on Oliver's shoulder and pulled his coat around her. "He'd throw the world's biggest fit 'bout yeh two."

"There isn't anything going on, now stop it," Oliver whispered in Gaelic.

"Stop speaking Gaelic! That makes me angry!" Hannah said, slapping Oliver in the forehead and then she pointed her finger at David. A little light of green energy appeared and tapped David in between his eyes about 10 times. Then she fell asleep.

"Such a lovely girl," David said, still grinning.

Oliver scowled.

* * *

And that's it! Next chapter will be the Great Hall. And much more interesting. I'm working on it, so calm down and don't worry. It will be soon. Reviews motivate me to type!!!! 


	3. Chapter 3

Yay! Midterms are over! At least for my school, I hope it is for the rest f you. So as a present for the end of cramming, a new chapter! Alright, I'm done with the "!" So this chapter is just along what everyone's doing the first night back. There's a couple song lyrics in here, I've been listening to a lot of Ashley Parker Angel and Faber Drive, so their songs are in here a bit and so is Santana. That was my disclaimer right there so no flames about me stealing lyrics. Okay, here you go.

I really wonder if you guys read these things.

* * *

Chapter 3

"Thank god," Derek said as they pushed their way through the crowd to where the carriages were. "Thought I'd be crushed."

"Yeh need to build up some muscle, cuz," Mitchell said, shoving past a Hufflepuff fourth year.

They'd reached the carriages and Mitchell jumped into one of them. David got into the one behind him, Froggie into the third, and Kaden in the fourth. Their huge group split up and filled up the carriages. As Hannah passed the thestral, she glanced into its white eyes. It snorted at her and pawed the ground.

"Hannah, are yeh starin' at the thing again? If it bot'ers yeh so much, don' look at it," Oliver said, grabbing her arm and tugging her into the carriage with David. "Merlin, don' see why yeh tink yeh need to look a' it. If I could see it, I'd jus' ignore it."

"Easier said than done, Oliver," Hannah sniped.

"You two make a lovely couple," David said.

"Shut up, will you?" Oliver snapped.

"Why? It's not like she understands us."

"You'd be surprised, David. Remember when we didn't think she knew how to play pool? And we lost fifty Galleons apiece that day."

"Stop it! Both of you! Before I go and kick Raheem out of the carriage that's got Nanda in it!" Hannah ordered, smacking both of them in their heads.

The carriage had started moving, heading for the school. Hannah crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Oliver and David, who grinned back. She scoffed, rolled her eyes, and ignored them for the ride up to Hogwarts. While she ignored them, David continued to antagonize Oliver to get him to admit, at least in Gaelic, that he liked Hannah.

"What good does it do you if I say I like her now?"

"So you admit you like her!"

"No, I simply questioned your motives."

"You like her. You like her."

"Would you stop that?!"

"No! That'd take away my fun."

"Okay, say I did like Hannah." David made a funny cough. "Shut up. So say I did and said it right now. It wouldn't do any good because she doesn't understand a word we're saying!"

"A few minutes ago, you just said that maybe she picked up on a few things!"

"Could've, not did."

David shook his head, becoming very annoyed with Oliver. "You're impossible! I try and try, but you keep rejecting the obvious! She likes you and you like her! It can't get much obvious than that."

"Jus' shut up and stop talkin'," Oliver ordered. Hannah's blue eyes were still narrowed into slits. "I'm sorry. But yeh didn' nee' ta hear wot was bein' said."

"If you wanted to talk in private, you could've waited until you were alone," Hannah said. "Ollie, you know I don't like it when you guys have your 'private conversations.' Half the time you do it to annoy me and the other half I really want to know what you're talking about and you won't tell me, and I hate that!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll tell you what we said later," Oliver said. He put his arm around her.

"You like her," David muttered.

"SHUT UP!" Oliver and Hannah said at the same time.

"Tú puedes estar contento si yo hablo en español y explico a Hannah que está hacienda contigo?" David asked in Spanish, which means, "Will you be happy if I talk in Spanish and explain to Hannah what is going on with you?"

"No, no puedo estar contento si hablas," Oliver responded.

"Why won't you be happy if he talks?" Hannah asked. She grinned. "I like it when we talk in Spanish. I understand what's going on."

"Quiero hablar en Gaelic ahora," David said. He smirked at Oliver. "Admit you like her or I'll yell it right now. Not in Spanish. In English."

"No!"

"Do it!" David threatened.

"No!"

Hannah was becoming angry again. "You say one more word in Gaelic and I'm going to hit you both where it hurts."

David took the warning seriously. "Just say it and I'll stop. I won't even go to the others."

"Fine! Yes! Now will you shut up and let it drop?" Oliver demanded.

David grinned and relaxed back into his seat. "Thanks for admitting it." Just then the carriage stopped. Hannah opened the door and jumped out and ran to where Nanda was getting out. Oliver and David exited the carriage and followed the group heading towards the castle. "Well, there isn't any need to go to our cousins. They know."

"I hate all of you," Oliver said, shoving David in the head.

* * *

After the Welcome Feast, everyone split up to go to their separate towers. But this time it was different from the other years. David wasn't with the Gryffindor group and Andrew wasn't with Mitchell and Kevin. They had to show the first years to the common rooms. So as everyone else left, David and Andrew were left in the Great Hall, waiting for the first years to find them. 

"I hate this job," Andrew muttered. "How the hell did I end up wit it?"

"Like I'd know," David said. A short blonde girl had walked up to him. David looked at her badge and then pointed to Clyde Ryans. "Hufflepuff's over there." She scurried away. "Probably 'cause Mitchell an' Kevin are idiots and the other guys didn't make the cut."

"Wot cut? I ain't tha' special. I shouldn' be doin' any o' this crap. Besides, I ain't gonna be around much this year," Andrew complained.

David looked up curiously. "Why?"

"Doctors are puttin' me on dialysis. Me left one's finally failed," Andrew said. "Right one's gonna get over worked pretty soon. I'm gonna nee' a transplant by the end o' the year." Andrew's kidneys had never been fully working. The left one had always been worst. For a while he'd been getting better, but two years ago he started to have more and more problems.

"Do yeh have a donor yet?" David asked.

Andrew shook his head. "Me da ain't a match. Sister ain't either. Now I gotta start lookin' further away." He didn't sound hopeful. He and David both knew that it was harder to find a donor in your family if your parents and siblings weren't matches. "Yeh know, it kinda makes me wonder if I'm adopted, yeh know? Maybe that tha's why me da ain't a match."

"Yeh ain't adopted," David said. "We all know yeh ain't. None o' us are." He glanced over at the two groups of first years. "Everyone here?" He made sure there were no last minute stragglers. "Okay, let's get goin'."

He and Andrew led the way to the marble stairs and started up them. The first years were really timid and stayed a good five steps back from the two of them.

"So, are we gonna be tested anytime soon?" David asked.

"I dunno. Me da will talk wit yer da and all the others. Then I guess yeh'll go in and get tested ta see if yeh match me," Andrew said. "Wee, wot fun. Then I git cut open an' 'ave someone's kidney stuck in me and hope dat it works."

They had reached the fifth floor. David and Andrew smirked at each other before separating. Andrew yelled, "Ravenclaws, this way." And he headed away from David.

"C'mon, keep going," David said to the first years. He led them up two more sets of stairs and then walked down a corridor that lead to the portrait of the Fat Lady. He gave the password, _Jeklar_, and they entered the common room. All of the first years were eagerly looking around at all of the furnishings. "This is the Gryffindor Common room, where you can spend most of your free time. There are lounges around the school that you can hang out with other students in different houses. Dormitories are this way." He led the way to the two sets of spiral stairs. "Girls, take those. Boys, up this way." And he climbed up them, leaving the first years behind. He entered his dormitory where his other three roommates sat. "Hey, mate," he said to Azra Khadilkar, who had already changed into his pajamas.

"Hey, how was your summer," Azra asked.

David pulled off his shirt and tossed it into the designated laundry spot. "Went to Spain."

"As usual," Azra said. He was taller than David, who was six foot two. Azra was about six four, had dark brown hair and eyes, and tan skin. "So… prefect." David scoffed at him and kicked his pants to the laundry pile. "Want me to bow and announce your arrival to all of our classes? Or will shinning your shoes be all I need to do?"

"I'm gonna shove my shoe up somewhere if you don't shut up," David said, throwing one of his tennis shoes at Azra.

Azra threw his shoe back. "Still… can't believe you got it."

Jared Rotec crawled into his bed. "That's 'cause he's the best behaved outta all of us."

"No he ain't. Not with his cousins," Azra said. "You six cause the most trouble in our school. And ain't Andrew a prefect too?"

"Yeah, so?" David asked.

Azra laid down on his bed. "Well, better Andrew than Kevin or Mitchell. If they got it… I'd think Dumbledore was on crack." He buried his head under his pillow. "Good night. And Tank, you'd better've cleared up that snoring problem."

"Shut up!" Warrick Tankhold ordered from his bed.

David rolled over onto his side and turned off his light, throwing the room into darkness. He crossed his arms on his pillow, put his head in his arms, and fell asleep within a minute.

* * *

Beneath the fifth year boys, Oliver and all his roommates were getting ready for bed as well. Percy and Eric were sitting on their beds that were to the right when you first entered the room. Kaden was on the left next to Danniell, who was next to Oliver with Raheem on his left. Kaden was the first into the dorm. He ran in and jumped onto his bed before sitting on it. Raheem walked across the room and went over to his trunk to start getting ready. Danniell got in without Percy or Eric acknowledging him, but when Oliver entered, Percy noticed. 

"Hey, Wood," Percy said.

"Wot?" Oliver asked, heading to his trunk.

"Aren't two of your cousins prefects?"

"Aye. And?"

"How do you think they got it?"

Danniell caught Oliver's eye and they both had to suppress a laugh. They couldn't believe how badly Percy wanted to be a prefect.

"Well… um… ain't one of yer brothers a prefect? Go ask one of them," Oliver said.

"They both are," Percy said.

Oliver then remembered. "Oh yeah, Charlie's a prefect. Kinda forgot 'bout tha."

"They haven't given me any advice. And if your cousins can get it, I should be able to," Percy said with a sort of arrogant tone of voice.

Oliver sighed and said, "Fraid I can' help yeh there, Perce. I dunno how they got it. Kinda a mystery."

"Maybe they paid off Dumbledore," Raheem joked. "And then went and bought a jet."

Oliver crawled into his bed and pulled the covers over his head. "Shut up, Raheem." He closed his eyes and thought, _"Thank god none of them have figured it out yet."

* * *

_Hannah and Nanda were the last girls to in their dormitory. Rihana and Katie were sitting and talking on Rhiana's bed. Rihana had dyed her hair to solid black and now had a new piercing on the side of her nose. Katie still looked the same from last year, still the same shoulder length brown hair, green eyes, and still short. On the other side of their cluttered dormitory, Silvia, Elli, and Nicole were listening to Elli's radio.

**"I need a little more luck than a little bit,  
****Cuz every time I get stuck the words won't fit  
****And every time that I try I get tongue tied  
****I'll need a little good luck to get me by"**

Hannah and Nanda went over to their beds and got changed into their pajamas. They both sat on Nanda's bed and listened to the song.

"Hey, who sings this?" Hannah asked.

Elli stopped mouthing to the song and said, "Faber Drive. They're amazing, aren't they?"

**"I need a little more help than a little bit  
****Like the perfect one word no one's heard yet  
****Cuz every time that I try I get tongue tied  
****I need a little good luck to get me by this time"**

As the other four listened to the song, Hannah's mind started to drift away from the words. Instead, she started thinking about Oliver. _"Merlin, why do I have to like him! He doesn't like me back. He can't. We're too much like brother and sister."_ She heard the refrain of the song again and thought about the words. _"Yeah, I need a lot of help. And how am I supposed to even tell anyone that I like him?"_ The song had ended and a new song came on.

"You like them, Hannah?" Silvia asked.

"What?" Hannah asked, having been caught off guard. "Oh, um, yeah. They're really good."

Elli sighed. "Caught off guard?"

"Just a tidbit," Hannah answered.

"What were you thinking about?" Nicole asked.

Hannah didn't hesitate to answer. "Somehow, I don't know why, Andrew's the Ravenclaw prefect. I'm really worried about that House. And I'm wondering if Dumbledore's finally going senile." Well, it had been on her mind a little bit.

"Wait," Silvia said. "Andrew's prefect? Are you kidding?"

"Well, yeah. Mitchell and Kevin…"

"No, then Dumbledore would definitely be senile," Nanda said.

Hannah nodded in agreement. "But, I would've thought maybe Webb would've gotten it. And I'd put Cricket before Andrew. But he got it." She pulled her hair into a ponytail and went over to her bed and got under the covers.

"Uh… Hannah? Today's Saturday. We don't have school tomorrow," Nicole pointed out.

Hannah rolled over to look at them. "I know, but I'm just tired. Didn't get much sleep last night. Right Nanda?"

"Yep!" Nanda said. "But how can you be tired?!"

Hannah pushed herself up onto her elbows. "How much caffeine did you have tonight?"

Nanda smirked. "Um… 4 cans?"

Hannah flopped onto her bed. "Ugh. You're gonna be up until 3. Goodnight!" She pulled her covers over her head.

"Do you mind if we still play music?" Elli asked.

"No," Hannah mumbled from under the covers. "Play whatever. I'm gonna pass out right about now. See you tomorrow." She closed her eyes and fell asleep in a few minutes. The girls continued to play music, but made it a little quieter for Hannah. The last lyrics she could remember were:

**"Your life is a flashback,  
A question, a photograph  
A statement, a story, a struggle  
A chance to laugh  
Cuz if you don't laugh you cry"

* * *

**"So, Andrew, tha' girl… do yeh seriously like her tha' much that yeh had ta almost beat the crap outta David? I mean, tha's a lit'le harsh," Mitchell said as he collapsed onto his bed.

"She's hot!" Andrew argued. "If she went ta dis school, I would date her!"

"Or attempt ta git her," Kevin said. Andrew glared at him. "Well, if she saw how yeh acted on the train, I think she'd be a little scared of you."

Andrew scowled at him. "Did I ask yeh wot yer opinion was? No. Now go an' jump off the tower an' see if yeh can get a scar." He pulled his shirt off of him and yanked the skull cap off his head to reveal dirty blond hair.

"Yeh've got hat hair," Mitchell pointed out. Andrew threw his skull cap at his cousin. Mitchell picked it up and pulled it on. "Is dis yer identity thing? Kinda like how Kevin's gotta scar 'imself up and Ollie's obsessed with Quidditch?" He pushed it up so he could look at his cousin. "So since I'm wearin' it, does dat make me yeh?"

"Shut up," Andrew ordered. "Give it back."

"No," Mitchell said. "I kinda like actin' like yeh. I think I'll do it for a week."

"Give it back and go snog Terah," Andrew said. Mitchell stared at him. Kevin jerked his head out of his trunk. "Oh don' give me dat. Yeh was constantly lookin' at her all of dinner. My god, just go make out with her."

"Shut up," Mitchell said.

"Don't tell me ta shut up. I'm prefect, I can give yeh detention!"

"I'm still older and bigger than yeh! I'll hit yeh if I need ta get yeh ta can it," Mitchell said, holding up a fist. Andrew knew not to start anything with Mitchell; he'd never won a fight against him.

He held out his hand. "Can I please have me hat back?"

"That's better," Mitchell said, throwing the cap at him. "Hey, Kevin, turn the radio on."

Kevin flicked the radio's switch and adjusted it to find a station. They ended up getting the tail end of _Soundtrack to Your Life_.

**"Your life is a flashback  
****A question, a photograph  
****A statement, a story, a struggle  
****A chance to laugh  
****Cuz if you don't laugh you cry  
****A last crescendo when you die  
****So hit the rewind and listen  
****It's the playback  
****The soundtrack to your life"**

"Shit, I like that song," Kevin said. "And wot are yeh bitches gonna play next?" He sat down as the DJ talked about the song. "Don't care, shut up and play the next one!"

Cricket and Webb had joined them finally. "What's Kevin yelling at now?"

"The radio," Andrew said, sitting down and leaning against the headboard of his bed. "He's mad because he only got the end of _Soundtrack to Your Life_." Kevin was glaring at the radio. "Kevin, relax, yeh know tha' DJ has ta comment on every single song tha' goes on."

"Yeah," Kevin said. "I know. Somebody should fire him." Music started to play. "Thank you god! That's wot I want fer Christmas. I want him fired."

"**Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,"**

"Hey, who is this?" Andrew asked from his bed.

Kevin was listening to the song. "I don't know. Must be new."

"That's what he said, you idiot! New song! NEW! As in yeh've never heard it before!" Mitchell yelled from his bed.

"Shut up!" Kevin said. "I'm listening to the song."

Webb shook his head. "No he ain't. He's listenin' to that guitar."

Andrew listened to the guitar solo. "It's Santana, his idol." He nodded at the guitar that was propped against the wall next to Kevin's bed. "Probably will want to learn that song in a few weeks."

"**We forgot where we were and we lost track of time,  
And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night,  
And we sang…**

**Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing…  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And we danced on into the night,"**

"I like it," Mitchell said. Kevin had now grabbed his guitar and was strumming it a little bit. "Yeh want me ta go find yeh the notes fer the song so yeh can learn it."

"Please and thank you."

"It's either that or I'll get yeh the DJ fired."

"I'll take the firing," Kevin said as the DJ continued babbling. "He nee's ta shut up!" He turned around on his bed to look at Mitchell. "So wait, yeh like Terah? When did tha' happen?"

Mitchell scowled at him, narrowing his dark brown eyes. "Why do yeh care?" Kevin just shrugged. "Eh… at the end o' las' year, I think." Kevin snorted. "Wha?"

Kevin shook his head, still grinning. "It's jus' funny. Yeh like Terah. And then Hannah might kick yer ass when she finds out."

"Please don't tell her," Mitchell asked. "Kevin, please, I really don' fancy dyin' this year. Please Kevin! I don' like ta beg."

Kevin grabbed Mitchell's lacross stick and bonked him on his head a few times. "Don' worry 'bout it. I ain't gonna tell her. But yeh…" He smacked Mitchell again. Mitchell grabbed the stick and pulled it away from Kevin. "Yeh nee' ta not flaunt it like ol' Ollie does. So jus'… watch yer step."

Mitchell nodded and laid his stick across his lap. "I'll try."

"Good man!" Kevin said, jumping up. He pulled out his soccer ball and started bouncing it on his knee. "So, I'm thinkin' 'bout a new Beater plan. How 'bout leanin' upside down and wacking it up so yeh hit somebody tha's above yeh?"

"Yeh mean tha' weird thing yeh did las' year and ended up falling off yer broom and Andrew had ta save yeh?" Mitchell asked.

Andrew leaped off his bed. "No! We ain't doin' tha! I almos' broke me arm as well as me broom! And Da ain't gettin' me any new 'uns this year, I haveta go a whole year wit jus' 'un. So I ain't doin' stupid shit this year!" Andrew had broken the most brooms out of any of them. One of them had been his sister's fault when she was 3 and he was 12. His father said he should've put his broom away, as he'd been telling him to for about a week.

"How is the wee lass?" Mitchell asked.

"Lovely," Andrew said with a pained smirk on his face. "Gettin' everythin' she wants as usual. Don' surprise me."

"Hey, mate, remember, she'd be nine years younger than yeh," Kevin said. He tucked his ball under his arm. "So, how'd be yer kidneys? Heard they're shit."

"Heard right," Andrew said. "Need surgery. Da don't match an' Ryeanne don' neither." He sat down on his bed and laid down on the pillow.

"Well, have they checked Laurie? She could still match," Kevin said, bringing up Andrew's step-mother. "Or Willow. She's old 'nough now, ain't she?"

"Laurie and Wills don' match neither," Andrew said shortly, and left it at that. Andrew didn't like to talk about his step-mother. It wasn't that she was mean to him, she was a very nice, kind person. But Andrew missed his own mother. She'd died when he was seven years old. His cousins knew what else had happened with it, but they didn't talk about for Andrew's sake.

"So, when're we gettin' tested?" Kevin asked.

"I dunno. Go talk wit yer das," Andrew ordered, hiding under the blankets.

Kevin turned to look at Mitchell. "So, I heard this new song by Papa Roach, called Scars. And…" Then Mitchell shoved his hand into Kevin's face. Kevin pushed it away. "Wot was tha' fer?"

"Yeh've got 'nough of 'em," Mitchell said.

"Nah, jus' listen!" He paused to think about the lyrics. "Got it! Alright… I tear my heart open, I sew meself shut. An' me weakness is, that I care too much. And me scars remind me, tha' the past is real. I tear me heart open, just ta feel."

Mitchell got on his bed. "Yeah, I'm sure tha's why yeh cut yerself up an' like jumpin' off the roof all the time." He turned off his light and crawled under his blankets.

"Maybe it is," Kevin said, still grinning and rubbing a five inch scar on his arm.

* * *

"Terah, I'm seriously debating on whether I should bring you to my house for the holidays," Janelle said as the Ravenclaw girls entered their dormitory. "Honestly, you might as well be a teacher here." She jumped onto her bed which was next to her friend Veronica's. 

"She could substitute for McGonagall if it was ever needed," Veronica put in. She yanked the rubber band out of her new dyed blonde hair.

Terah rolled her eyes and shoved past her two friends to get to her bed. "Some days I wonder if you two really are my friends."

"Oh, no, we're your friends," Janelle said, grinning. "Because we're the ones who are supposed to tell you when a certain guy likes you."

Terah whipped her head around. "What? Are you serious?" Janelle and Veronica nodded, both having very content smiles on their faces. "Who?"

"Well, you seem to think that we aren't your real friends," Veronica said. She took out her old quilt that her grandmother had made for her when she was a baby. "So I guess we'll just hold that little piece of information hostage."

Terah's mouth dropped open. "C'mon, who is it? Please!"

"Nope, we aren't your friends!" Veronica argued. She now took out a very old bear. "Do you think I'm getting too old for him?" she asked, holding out the worn bear to Janelle. "I don't even know why I packed him."

"But he's such a cutie!" Janelle said.

Veronica shook her head. "Honestly, Janelle, I wonder how old you really are."

"Hey!" Terah yelled, getting their attention. "Don't change the subject! Who likes me?!"

Janelle smiled and held up the bear. "He loves penguins!"

Terah now gave Janelle a very annoyed look. "Please. Mitchell? Yeah, I'm sure. Now who is it?"

"We just told you!" Veronica insisted. Terah's bright green eyes scrutinized Veronica's face for any sign of deception. "He likes you! He kept staring at you all of dinner."

Terah laughed and flung herself onto her mattress and rolled her blue comforter around herself. "He can't like me. He just can't."

Janelle laid down so that she was at eyelevel with Terah. "And why not?"

Terah sighed and glanced out the window. "Because… it's Mitchell! He can't like me." Terah remembered about the time when Mitchell was four how he'd thrown a bunch of toys at her because she'd taken his teddy bear. And she'd kept it. That was one of the few things that McGonagall had managed to salvage from their ruined house.

"Well, he does," Janelle snapped back, but still grinning. "I can just see it now… Mitchell and Terah. Aww, how cute."

Terah rolled her eyes and flung her pillow at Janelle. Janelle threw it back at her and Terah was about to pick it up again when Veronica picked it up. "No fighting! I'm sick of it!" She hit both of them on the head with the pillow before tossing it on Terah's bed again. "Now, Terah, just believe us. We'd never lie to you. He likes you."

"Yeah, whatever," Terah said. "I'm going to bed. Janelle, I hope you've learned how to be quiet. Or I might just have you go run around with Topoly and see which one of you wears out sooner." She rolled over so that her back was to them.

Janelle turned to Veronica. "I'd win."

Veronica nodded and said sarcastically, "I'm sure you would."

"I would!"

Veronica shoved Janelle in the head. "Go to bed!"

* * *

I have no idea when the next chapter's going to be posted. Hopefully in a few weeks. I've got a huge paper due in English in a few weeks and I'm going to be spending a lot of time on it. Then I'll get back to this. See you later! 


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, here's the next chapter! Hannah gets really frustrated with the Wood Boys. And I know that cell phones and other electronic stuff shouldn't be able to work, but for a few things, they'll just have to. No flames! I warned all of you. Now smile and read.

Hey, do you guys read this? Let me know.

* * *

Chapter 4

The next morning, everyone was late in getting up. Andrew was the first one up in the morning, opening his bleary blue eyes at ten forty. He checked the clock, moaned, and kicked the blankets off of himself. He yawned and passed a hand over his hair to get it out of his eyes, which did no use because a second later it fell right back into its old place. He shuffled to the bathroom and rubbed his eyes free of the sleep that had gathered there. He fumbled to find his toothbrush, managed to put toothpaste on it, and then started to brush his teeth. After half a minute or so, he spit into the sink, ran his brush under the running water, and tossed it into the cup that held Kevin and Mitchell's. Then he turned and headed back to his bed, focusing on getting dressed, but instead he collapsed back onto his bed and buried his head into the pillow.

Twenty minutes later, Mitchell opened his eyes and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He rubbed his wrists that were now throbbing painfully. Muttering angrily to himself, he reached into his trunk and pulled out his bag of Ace bandages and wrapped them around both his wrists. He stood up and felt the pain in his ankles as well. He sat back down and wrapped up his ankles so that his leg and foot were set at an almost immovable angle of 90 degrees. Once again he got up and changed into a T-shirt and jeans. Then he stood up and went to the bathroom. After a few minutes, he left the dormitory with one of his books and walked down the spiral staircase and sat down on one of the blue armchairs near the fire. He opened up the book to about halfway and started to read.

Half an hour later, Terah entered the common room, her sleek black hair tied up in a bun today. She walked over to Mitchell and tapped him on his head. "Hey, your cousins are looking for you."

"Wot do they want?" Mitchell asked, not looking up.

Terah sighed and sat down on the back of a couch. "I'm not sure. It's just Oliver and David. Are all the rest of them upstairs?" she asked, pointing to the boys' dormitories. Mitchell nodded. "I'm gonna go wake them up. Want to help?"

"Sure," Mitchell said, closing the book. He led the way up the stairs and dropped his book on his bed. Terah went over to Andrew and tried waking him up. Mitchell looked over as her as she prodded him in the back. "Jus' 'void the kidneys," he warned.

Terah glanced up at him. "I'm not an idiot." She leaned down and said, "Andrew, c'mon, get up." Andrew moaned and rolled over. "Well, you were up at some point. No morning breath." She shoved his shoulder. "Wake up!" Mitchell laughed from over at Kevin's bed. Terah put her hands on her hips. "And how do you get him up?"

Mitchell grinned and walked over to her. He rolled Andrew onto his back and then grabbed a handful of his cousin's hair. He yanked him into a sitting position. Andrew let out a yelp and tried to free himself of Mitchell's hand. He opened his eyes and growled at him. Mitchell, however, didn't let go as Terah had expected him to do. Andrew's blue eyes tried to glare a message to Mitchell, but he just pulled harder. So Andrew threw out his left hand and tugged on Mitchell's ear. Mitchell let out a gasp and his grip on Andrew loosened. Andrew pulled himself free and let go of Mitchell's ear. Gasping, Mitchell put his arm between his legs and squeezed his knees together.

"Mornin' ta yeh too," Mitchell moaned, breathing heavily through his nose.

Andrew went to his trunk and started getting dressed. Terah gaped after him. "What did you do to him?" she demanded.

Andrew grinned and pulled a shirt over his head. "Mitchell's got… sensitive's da word I tink… ears." Terah still looked clueless. Andrew shook his head. "Yeh pull un down and sometin' else goes up." He yanked on a pair of pants. "So we wakin' up Kevin an' Derek?" Mitchell nodded. "I gots Kev." He went over to Kevin's messy bed. He striped the blankets down to reveal Kevin's severely scarred body. Last year, when Kevin had hair still, he would've woken him up the same way Mitchell got him up. But now Kevin had a shaved head, with centimeter long bristles. "Kevin, c'mon, git up."

"It don' work," Mitchell muttered, finally able to stand up. "We can' git 'im up e'er. Not even punchin' 'im down dere," he informed Terah.

"Hey, Mitch, c'mere," Andrew ordered. "We's gonna shove 'im outta bed." Mitchell joined the left of Kevin's bed. "On three. Un… Two… Three." He and Mitchell shoved Kevin out of his bed. Kevin thudded onto the floor and didn't move. Cricket sat up in his bed.

"Wha happened?" Cricket asked thickly.

Andrew turned around. "Tryin' ta get 'im up. Wanna 'elp?"

"Nah, sorry," Cricket said, now getting out of bed. "I'm hungry. See you later." He got dressed quickly and was out the door in a second. Mitchell and Andrew shook their heads and turned back to Kevin on the floor.

"Now wot?" Mitchell asked.

"Stop bein' smart wit me o' I'm gonna pull tha' ear o' yers again," Andrew snapped. He looked around the room for something. Then he spotted a pocket knife and picked it up. "Think 'e'll mind if we give 'im another scar?"

Terah grabbed his arm. "I can't stand the sight of blood. No." She took the pocket knife away from him. "There's got to be another way to get him up without causing him physical pain."

"Terah, Kevin don' feel pain no more," Andrew said. "He's scared 'imself up so badly 'e ain't got no pain nerves left."

"Well I don't care," Terah said firmly. "I don't like blood. And I'm sure the house elves won't appreciate having to clean up a huge blood stain."

Just then Derek entered the room, only wearing a pair of jeans. He spotted Andrew and Terah glaring at each other and the pocket knife in Terah's hand. He put two and two together and joined his cousins. "Andrew, can we go one day not givin' 'im scars?" He took the knife and put it in his own pocket. "Alrigh', let's try this a more humane way." He took Kevin's alarm clock and set it five minutes before the time it was now, and then jacked up the volume all the way. "Eh… Mitchell, I don' tink' Webb'll like this."

Mitchell went over to Webb's bed. "Hey, Webb."

"Hm?" Webb asked, rubbing his eyes.

"We're settin' off a really loud alarm ta wake up Kevin," he warned. "Yeh might wanna leave."

"I'll just go back to sleep again," Webb assured him. He hid under the quilt and put his pillow over his head. Only his elbow showed, jutting out from under the pillow. Mitchell shrugged and joined his cousins and Terah.

"It's gonna go off in a minute," Derek said. Sixty seconds later, the alarm let loose a very loud DJ voice that blared through the room. Kevin jerked up into a sitting position and looked around for his alarm clock and was met with Derek's knees. Derek saw that Kevin was awake and shut it off. Kevin stood up.

"Mornin'," Kevin said, grinning. He pushed his way through his cousins and pulled out a pair of jeans. "Why're yeh up 'ere," he asked at Terah.

"Trying to wake up you," Terah answered. She headed for the door. "Your cousins are waiting for you. Probably to beat the crap out of you. See you later." Then she left out the door and down the stairs.

"I'm pretty sure tha' "see yeh la'er" was ta Mitchell," Kevin muttered to Andrew. They both started laughing and started for the door. Mitchell and Derek followed. "Seriously, why don' 'e jus' ask 'er out? She fancies 'im, don' she?"

They'd entered the common room and marched across it towards the entrance. Terah was sitting in the common room with Veronica. Andrew saw Terah glance up and catch eyes with Mitchell.

"Any day now, 'an they'll be announcin' weddin' plans," Andrew said softly.

Mitchell grumbled and shoved them forward. That was their cue to start running; almost slamming into the stone before the wall had a chance to slide open. They sprinted down the stairs and then collided into David's back, causing all three of them to collapse onto the floor. Oliver looked behind himself, didn't see David, and looked down to the floor. Hannah glanced from the three cousins trying to get free of each other and then upstairs to see Mitchell glowering and Derek walking a good three steps behind him, just in case. Hannah sighed and crossed her arms as she waited for the last two Woods to join.

"Wot'd they do now," Hannah asked.

Mitchell growled and stalked past her. Hannah glanced back at the others, well more at Oliver and Derek as the other three were still on the ground, and then shrugged. She followed Mitchell down the stairs, but he was still grumpy.

"Wake up on the wrong side again?" Hannah asked.

"Worse," Mitchell mumbled. "Them idiots behind us."

"It can't've been tha' bad," Hannah interjected. "Yeh still didna answer. Wot'd they do?"

"Jus' pissed me off too early," Mitchell answered. "I'll get better. S'long as Kevin stays a good five feet away from me."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Andrew yelled behind. "Just say you like Terah now. Maybe Hannah will go easy on you."

"Would you stop that?!" Hannah screamed, grabbing Andrew by the shirt and glaring at him. "No more Gaelic."

"Well, Hannah, Oliver likes you. He wants to make out with you."

"Shut up!" Oliver and Hannah yelled at the same time. Hannah turned to face him. "What did he just say about me?"

"Yeah, Oliver, what did I say about her?"

Oliver growled angrily at Andrew before shoving him aside. "'e said I called yeh a fat pig las' nigh'. But I didna even talk wit tha' idiot."

Hannah gave Andrew a death glare. "I am _not_ fat."

"It's so freaking awesome that she doesn't understand us," Andrew muttered to Derek.

Oliver glared at him from the corner of his eye. "You keep it up and she'll understand us soon enough."

"Oh please, Oliver, we've spoken it for years around her. If she'd have picked it up at all, it'd be by now," Mitchell said.

Hannah punched Mitchell in the stomach and then stalked angrily away from them. She saw Nanda and Katie sitting at the table at the middle. She ran for them and slipped into the spot between Katie and a third year girl. Katie followed Hannah's angry glare to the entrance where the six boys had just entered.

"And what did they do this morning?" Katie asked.

"I hate it when they speak Gaelic around me," Hannah grumbled, shoving her fork into her pile of waffles. They Wood Boys had reached their section of the table. Hannah set her face into a frown.

"Got room fer us?" Mitchell asked.

"Nope," Hannah said.

"Aww, c'mon Hannah, don' be a spoil sport," Mitchell nagged. Hannah rolled her eyes and turned back to her breakfast. "Don' yeh love us?"

"Mitchell, you can go jump off a bridge for all I care," Hannah said coolly.

Oliver put his hands on Hannah's shoulders and rested his chin on her head. "Wot 'bout me?"

"You were speaking Gaelic yesterday, too," Hannah said. Oliver pouted his lip. "You can go away now." Oliver rolled his eyes and motioned for his cousins to follow. They went and sat down at the further end of the table.

"You okay, Hannah?" Katie asked.

Hannah sighed and rested her head against her left hand. "Just… TOM's in town."

"Ouch," Katie and Nanda muttered at the same time.

Hannah nodded. "So yeah, I'm just gonna be crabby for the next few days. Sorry." She poured some syrup onto her waffles. "Ugh… sugary crap. I think I'm gonna hurl." Hannah didn't have a strong stomach when she had her time of the month. "Let's watch those idiots battle over it." She picked up her plate and strolled over to where the Wood Boys were sitting. She set down her plate in front of Oliver. "Ain't hungry. See you later." Then she turned and strode out of the Great Hall.

Mitchell and Kevin's mouths fell open in slight surprise. "I don' get women," Mitchell muttered. "They're pissed at yeh 'un minute, an' the next, they're all nice an' 'appy. I mean… wot's up wit tha?"

Oliver speared one waffle on the end of his fork. "She drowned it," he said, holding up the syrup-soaked waffle. "Where's the sugar?" David handed it to him. Oliver took out a spoon full of the powder and dumped it onto the waffle.

"Maybe it's tha' time when we jus' agree wit wot she says," Derek guessed.

"Don' we already do tha?" Kevin muttered.

"I mean tha' time when yeh try really hard _not_ ta piss 'er off," Derek continued.

"Oh, tha' time," Andrew figured out. He rubbed his eye and then played with his cereal. "I guess." He shoved some of the Lucky Charms into his mouth. "Yeah, magically delicious me arse." He shoved the bowl away from him. "Why do I even try ta eat this?"

"Cause yeh don' learn the firs' time," David explained.

Just then Monica and Ryeanne appeared. Monica played with a strand of her dyed pink hair while she chatted with Ryeanne. They reached the Wood Boys and bonked their respective brothers in the heads. Derek and Andrew both gripped the back of their heads.

"Why do yeh do tha?" Andrew groaned.

"Well, do yeh wan' me ta hit yeh in the back?" Ryeanne asked with false politeness. Her curly black hair was in a messy bun.

"Da said yeh can' do tha' until afta me surgery," Andrew said, grabbing his sister's arm and yanking her into the spot next to him. "Now yeh do tha' ta me again, and I'll dump this cereal on yer head." He motioned to the soggy Lucky Charms.

Monica sighed and sat on the edge of the table with her feet on the stool. "Hey, where's Hannah? Did yeh piss her off again?"

"We were talking in Gaelic," Mitchell explained innocently.

Monica groaned. "Mitchell! Yeh can' do tha' this week! She's pissy enough as it is."

"TOM's a bitch," Ryeanne muttered. "He decided ta pay me a visit, too," Monica put her hand on Ryeanne's shoulder. "C'mon, let's go comfort her and apologize for these morons."

"Wot's so bad 'bout it?" Kevin asked. "I mean… c'mon? It's jus' a few cramps. How bad could it be?"

Monica and Ryeanne gave him death glares. "Kevin, let's explain dis in a way dat even yeh could understan' it," Ryeanne explained. "Yeh know when I kick yeh where da sun don' shine? Well, a' tha' part where the pain's jus' startin' ta go away, tha's wot it's like fer girls. And it don' do away for a good five days."

"And it comes every month," Monica finished.

"So, I get kicked there 'bout every month," Kevin argued.

Monica grabbed Ryeanne's arm. "C'mon, let's go find Hannah. Maybe she'll 'ave a plan ta screw over dees idiots." The two went running for the entrance.

Kevin had about five things to say to that last sentence, but decided not to push any more of Oliver's buttons for the morning. Instead, he asked, "When did Mo dye her 'air?"

"I dunno," Derek said. "Do I look like I'd ask 'er dat? I tink it's 'un o' does t'ings dat lasses 'er age does. Rebellin', ain't dat wot it's called?"

"Against wot?" Mitchell asked.

"I dunno! Natural hair color?"

Outside in the courtyard, Hannah was sitting on a bench, gazing up at the clear sky. She saw a few birds fly overhead, then followed by an owl. Hannah closed her eyes and breathed deeply, her mind beginning to drift.

"Hi Parker."

Hannah's eyes snapped open and focused on Marcus Flint who was about three feet away from her. He was wearing a black T-shirt and ripped blue jeans. His black hair hung in his face, hiding his gray eyes. He smiled.

"Daydreaming?"

"More like calming down," Hannah explained. "Oliver and his cousins got me mad this morning."

"Aren't they acting like they usually do?" Marcus asked. He still maintained the three foot distance. "I mean… unless they have a silent mode, they seem to go through each day the same way."

"Oh, they do," Hannah said. She pushed her hair behind her shoulder. "No, I'm the one that's pissy. TOM decided to pay me a visit."

"Who?" Marcus asked, his eyebrows coming together.

"No one," Hannah said. There was suddenly noise coming from one of the entrances to the courtyard. Hannah instantly recognized the voices. "Ugh, I don't want to talk with any of you!" She got up and ran for the other exit. "I'll see you later!"

"Good luck," Marcus called after her. He turned around to see all six of the "clones" enter the courtyard. They lined up in their order to stare him down. "If looks could kill…" he muttered.

"Where'd she go, Flint," David demanded.

Marcus grinned at the Woods. "Ain't tellin' you shit. You pissed her off, you go find her." He strolled around the group and left the courtyard. _"Arrogant bastards need to get over themselves."_ He turned two corners and took a shortcut that led him down to the dungeons. Just as he stepped out into the hallway, he saw his friends Terrence and Adam and followed them to the common room.

Up on the third floor, Hannah saw sitting on a window ledge, looking down into the courtyard where the Woods were. She rested her back against the wall and watched as the Woods sat down on the ground and began chatting. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a girl with braided black hair strolling her way. She glanced up and Terah sat down next to her.

"Hey," Terah said. "Why are you hiding?"

"I'm crabby," Hannah moaned. "And I'm not in the mood to deal with any of them."

Terah shrugged sympathetically. "Well, you'll get better in a few days."

"I quit!" Hannah said, throwing her hands in the air. "I'm just gonna go die now." She got up to leave but Terah grabbed her elbow and yanked her back onto the ledge of the window. "Fine, I'll just sit here and die."

"Would you stop it," Terah asked. Hannah smirked and nodded. "So, anything interesting happen on the train? What'd I miss?"

"Loads! Andrew nearly beat the crap out of David because David had this picture of a girl on his camera and Andrew wanted to know her name," Hannah explained. She took out David's camera and turned it on. "I stole it from his pocket at dinner when he was explaining it to me. Now let me see this girl for myself." She began to flip through David's pictures and eventually found ten consecutive pictures of the same girl. "I think this might be her."

She showed the picture to Terah.

"Well, she's pretty," Terah said. She clicked on the right button three times before finding a picture of the girl laughing and putting up a hand to stop David from taking the picture. "Whoa, look at this." She handed the camera back to Hannah. "She looks like me right there."

"Maybe she's your long lost sister, Terah," Hannah teased, bringing up Terah's "past." Terah told everyone that McGonagall had adopted her when she was one because her parents had been killed.

Terah rolled her eyes and grabbed for the camera. "Yeah, like I'm sure." She bonked Hannah on the head with the edge of the camera.

"Careful! If that breaks David will kill me! And Andrew might as well," Hannah tacked on. She found a video on the camera. Terah pressed the play button and they watched as the girl was laughing.

"Okay, Kristen, introduce yourself!" David yelled.

The girl smiled and leaned against a stone wall. "Hi, I'm Kristen. I don't know why he's making me do this!"

"For prosperity!" David called. "Keep talking!"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Anything!"

The girl crossed her arms and frowned. "Well… I've lived in over ten countries and know 5 languages. That's exciting. I know English, German, French, Italian, and Gaelic. I don't know Spanish and I'm in Spain. How does that work out?" She stopped for fifteen seconds, in which David nagged at her to keep going. "I like snakes!"

"Creepy!" David yelled.

Kristen marched up to the camera. "You're the creeper! You're making a video of me just babbling about nothing! Creeper! Turn that camera off."  
"No!"

There was some scuffling for the camera and it turned off. Terah rolled her eyes. "I agree with her. David's a creeper." Her emerald eyes sparkled as she laughed. "Should we return it to David?"

Hannah shook her head. "No way. But I wanna talk with her. I know David would've gotten her number. And we'll have to trade for it. I knew there was a reason that I jacked this off him." She weighed the little camera in her hand. "Let's go." They got up and walked down the stairs to go out to the courtyard.

"But… phones shouldn't work here," Terah said. "They can't!"

"You'd be surprised with what people can do if you've got enough money to pay them with," Hannah assured her. She skipped over to the Woods with the camera dangling from her wrist. David spotted it instantly and stood up, holding out his hand for it. "On one condition."

"Wot is it?" David asked.

"You give me her phone number," Hannah said.

"Whose?" David questioned, his eyebrows knitting together in a confused face.

"Kristen's," Hannah said. "Give me your phone so I can get it and I'll give you back the camera and the phone." David sighed and pulled out his sleek black phone from his pants' pocket. He handed it to her and she flipped it open and began looking through the contacts. She found Kristen's number and then dialed it into hers. "Thank you." She handed him back both electronic devices.

"Hey, do yeh forgive us yet?" Mitchell yelled. Hannah looked around David to see him and Kevin sprawled out on the ground.

"Hmm…" Hannah said. "I forgive David, for the number, Derek, because he's quiet, and Kevin because he didn't say much in Gaelic."

"Wot 'bout me?" Oliver asked.

"You spoke in Gaelic too," Hannah pointed out. "Gotta go! Bye, bye." She and Terah left the courtyard.

"Yeh wan' ta splain tha' un again ta me?" Oliver asked Andrew.

Andrew smirked and tousled Oliver's hair. "Oh yeah, she _really_ likes yeh."

* * *

I'm hoping to update soon, like in a few days. Hannah will be much happier next chapter, I promise. Review! 


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry I haven't updated in forever. It's taken me a while to figure out what to put. This chapter's just more about how Oliver likes Hannah and Mitchell likes Terah. Other than that, there's not much. I'll try to update soon, but I'm not going to promise much.

* * *

Chapter 5

After a day of relaxation, and irritation for a few, everyone woke up the next morning and dragged themselves to get to breakfast to get their schedules. Danniell and Oliver were sitting on their beds, waiting for Raheem and Kaden to finish getting ready.

"I'm serious," Danniell said, toying with the twine bracelet he had wrapped around his wrist. There were four blue beads on it, Cally's favorite color. She'd made it for him two years ago and he never took it off. "If we get Potions with Slytherins again, I'll kill someone."

Oliver nodded in agreement. "Yeah, ya'd think they wouldna put us wit the Slytherins, but they do? How do tha' work?"

Danniell shrugged and picked up the plaid shirt that was on the floor. He looked it over, saw it was clean, and pushed his arms through the sleeves. Just then the door to the bathroom banged open. Kaden stepped out, wearing only a pair of sweatpants.

"Danniell, I used your toothpaste," Kaden announced, going to his bed and pulling clothes on. Danniell grumbled unhappily. "Hey, I could've used your toothbrush as well."

Raheem went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Kaden yanked on a sleeveless shirt and grabbing a leather jacket. As he turned, Oliver saw a black mark on Kaden's upper right arm.

"Kaden, wot'd yeh do?" Oliver asked.

"Huh?" Kaden mumbled. He looked at where Oliver was. On his arm was a black X with two dashes over the top of the X. The total size was about two inches. "Oh, yeah, I got a tattoo a couple weeks ago. I'm getting another at Christmas. This one says 'Father.' My second's gonna say 'Mother.'"

"You're actually getting all that done?" Danniell asked. Kaden had told them at the end of third year how he wanted to get a total of six tattoos. On his right arm he would have Father, Mother, Brother. On the other there would be Love and Friendship. And on the base of his neck he was going to get Family. "Your parents agreed to it?"

"Yep," Kaden said. "They just can't be that big. And this is it. No more. At least, none they'll pay for." He looked back down at his tattoo. "It just hurts like a bitch."

"Can't wait till I turn fifteen and a half," Oliver said. "Me cousins are all gettin' a Celtic twist on their left arms. We just gotta wait."

"Mitchell's turning seventeen, ain't he gonna bitch?" Danniell asked.

"He, David, an' Kevin's gettin' it done a' Christmas," Oliver explained. "The rest o' us get it a' summer."

"Is Hannah getting it?" Kaden asked, knowing how Hannah always did the same thing they did.

Oliver shook his head. "Nope. She 'fraid o' needles."

Kaden grinned and pulled his jacket on. "Like I'm sure. Hey, Raheem, you done in there yet!"

Raheem shoved the door open and stalked to his bed. "Yes, I'm done." He ran a hand through his dreadlock hair. "Let's go 'fore Hannah comes up and bitches at us." The four boys got up and walked down the stairs until they reached the common room.

Hannah and Nanda were sitting in their usual chairs that were by the window near the stairs. Nanda's hair was French braided into two pigtails today. She wore her usual jeans and t-shirt this morning. Hannah wore her khaki pants and a blue shirt. Oliver walked over to them and yanked Hannah out of the chair. Hannah tried to squirm away but Oliver twisted her arms around so that they were crossed behind her back. She relaxed and sagged a little bit in his arms. She blew her hair out of her face and turned around to look at Oliver.

"Cheater," she muttered.

Oliver grinned. "I'm a cheater?"

"Yes," Hannah said, tugging at her arms but Oliver wouldn't loosen his grip. She brought up her leg but Oliver dodged the kick before she made contact. He pushed his chest up against her back to protect himself and he rested his chin on her head. "Lemme go!"

"No," he answered.

Kaden huffed. "Hey, love birds, let's go!"

"Love birds?" Hannah and Oliver demanded, glaring at Kaden.

Kaden held up his hands in defense. "I call 'em as I see 'em."

"Yeh ain't gonna be seein' much soon if 'e'd lemme go," Hannah threatened, a little bit of a Scottish accent slipping out. This only ever happened when she was really mad. Oliver let go of her instantly, he knew that this was the point to do so. Hannah rolled her hand into a fist. "Yeh wanna try tha' statement again?"

"No," Kaden said quickly. "I'll be quiet."

"Good," Hannah said, smiling and turning around. "Let's go get breakfast." Nanda got up and followed her through the portrait hole. Kaden and Oliver walked right next to each other as they left the common room.

"Mate, you know that when you've got her in a steal lock and she threatens somebody, you _don't_ let go!" Kaden reminded him.

Oliver grabbed Kaden's hair and thrust his head down. "Mate, yeh'd do well ta 'member tha' when Hannah gits pissed an' talks wit an accent, tha' when yeh let 'er go."

"No, you only do that 'cause she's got you wiped," Kaden muttered to himself. Luckily Oliver didn't hear him.

Danniell and Raheem were quietly conversing with each other, so that Oliver wouldn't hear.

"How long until he asks her out, do you think?" Danniell asked.

Raheem sighed and mussed with his hair a bit. "Well, Oliver will be in denial about it for the next month. We might have to beat it out of him. Then we have to talk with Nanda…"

"Or if Hannah's just as obvious, we'll skip that step," Danniell interrupted.

Raheem nodded in agreement. "Or that. Anyways, he'll deny _that_ for another two months and when he finally admits it, he still won't _do_ anything until it's about Christmas and then he'll just do something that we'll all laugh at him about for the next three years, but they'll end up together."

Danniell thought for a second. "Or we could talk with Kevin and just speed that whole process up to about two weeks."

"Danniell, we want them to date, not beat up Kevin and just deny it more," Raheem argued. They walked into the Great Hall and sat down next to Nanda. "Or, we could just yell at both of them."

"We could do that," Danniell nodded.

Nanda glanced over at them. "Okay, what are you two doing now?"

"Not your business," Danniell answered, grabbing Nanda around the head and rubbing his fist into her hair. Nanda slapped Danniell across the face and there was a loud smack. He let go of her and rubbed his cheek where there was now a red mark forming there. "That wasn't nice."

Nanda brushed her blonde hair out of the way and ran her fingers over his mark. They looked exactly like siblings, Nanda could much more easily pass for his sister than Cally really could. Cally had dark curly brown hair, but still had Danniell's sapphire blue eyes. She was coming to Hogwarts next year and couldn't wait. "You didn't have to grab my head."

"Yes I did," Danniell answered. He motioned to the plate of pancakes. "Ollie, pass."

Oliver handed over the plate and rested his head in his hand. He glanced across the Great Hall and watched the Slytherins yelling and talking, some with their heads bent together and whispering. Terrence Higgs muttered something quietly to Marcus Flint and Adam Davidson. Then he very quickly pointed at Oliver.

_"No,"_ Oliver thought to himself. He glanced to his left and looked at Hannah and Nanda attempting to draw Raheem's hair on a piece of paper. _"They're talking about Hannah."_ He frowned and glared across the hall. Marcus caught Oliver's eyes and smirked at him. Oliver's hand bawled into a fist.

"Oliveeeer," Hannah said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Oliveeeer. Earth to Oliver!" Then she smacked him on the head. Oliver broke his stare with Marcus to look at her. "You okay in there?"

Oliver's eyes flicked back to the Slytherin table, but Marcus and Terrence already had their backs to him and their shoulders obscured Adam's face. He looked back at Hannah. "Yeah, jus' sleepy."

"Then maybe you should've gone to bed earlier," Hannah said smugly.

Oliver put his hand on her head and pushed it away. "I did. Now stop actin' like me mother."

Just then, McGonagall came by with their schedules, piling six papers onto the table and allowing for them to all reach for them. They scanned down their schedules, examining who was in their classes this year. Oliver's face turned into a scowl.

"An' guess who'd be in our potions class," he muttered. The others groaned.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Kaden grumbled, shoving his schedule into his bag. "Every year."

Nanda glanced at her Monday schedule. And saw she had ten minutes to be at Ancient Runes. "Hey, Hannah, we've gotta go to class."  
"Okay," Hannah answered. "Bye, Ollie. See you guys at Charms!"

Then she and Nanda left the Great Hall and headed for class. They guys watched the girls leave before looking back over their schedules. Raheem and Danniell both had Muggle Studies that started in fifteen minutes, but the class room was just on the second floor. So they could wait. Kaden had sighed up for Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures, neither of which were today. Oliver scanned over his classes, looking for his electives.

"Why'd I take Divination?" Oliver mumbled, seeing that he had it next afternoon. "I can' stan' tha' class."

"At least we've got Care of Magical Creatures Wednesday," Kaden said.

"Trelawney's an ol' hag," Oliver grumbled, shoving his schedule into his bag. He checked his watch, sighed, and shoved his plate away. "I's gotta go to the pitch. I'm aidin' Madam Hooch wit 'em firs' years." He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder and left the Great Hall, ducking from an apple that Kevin threw at his head on his way to class.

Raheem put his head in his hand. "I never understand how Oliver can deal with all of them on a daily basis."

"Maybe he just ignores it," Danniell offered.

Kaden shrugged. "Maybe. But who cares. So what have you lot got first this year?"

Up two flights of stairs, Hannah and Nanda were walking down the hall that lead to the Ancient Runes classroom. Terah was sitting on the floor, going over a couple of her notes from last year. She saw them approaching and looked up.

"How's it going?"

"It's good," Hannah said, helping Terah up and they continued on their way down the hall. "And you?"

"Eh… okay."

"What's the matter?" Nanda asked.

Terah shrugged. "It could be worse, it could be better. It's just one of those in between days, you know? And my roommates were all giggling and babbling last night. I didn't get much sleep." She rubbed the corner of her eye and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Nanda, who did your hair."

"Elli did," Nanda replied. "Needed it behind me head."

"I should go visit Elli and have her do mine. Actually, I'm bored with my hair. I think I'll cut it. Or dye it. Or both," Terah prattled on.

"You want Monica to do it for you?" Hannah asked sarcastically.

Terah pushed her in the shoulder. "No thank you. I saw her screaming pink hair this morning, and I think I'll have to pass on it."

Nanda played with the fringed end of her braid. "What if I dyed my hair pink?" For an answer, Hannah and Terah burst into almost identical laughter. "I'm serious!"

"No. Nanda, you're not meant to have pink hair. No one is," Hannah said. "Pink highlights, we'll talk. Pink like Mo, that is a no." She grinned. "Hey! I'm a poet!" She twirled around on her right foot. "I should write a book of poems!"

"Let's test this," Terah said. "What rhymes with dog?"

"Frog!"

"Cat?" Nanda joined in.

"Bat!"

"Car?"

"Bar!"

"Ethnomethodology?"

Hannah stopped spinning and glared at Terah. "Why would I write a poem on the study of fire? Wait… that's a socio-ology term, isn't it?" Terah nodded. "Yeah… well, I don't like socio-ology! So there!" She crossed her arms. "Now, keep quizzing me."

"Fork?"

"Pork!"

"Ugly?"

"Chubby!"

Nanda sighed and shook her head. "Hannah, ugly and chubby don't rhyme."

"I know that," Hannah said. "It's a slant rhyme. It doesn't have to match exactly."

They had stopped and started arguing about slant rhymes. Terah, who had continued on and was now far ahead, had reached the end of the hall. Mitchell and Andrew were sitting on a bench, filing through their homework. They both had out the same paper and were comparing answers, all the while muttering in Gaelic. Terah walked over to them and put her hands on her hips.

"I'm pretty sure that's cheating."

Mitchell jerked his head up and tried to suppress a smile while Andrew jabbed him in the side and said, "Here she is to confess her undying love to you."

"Shut up!" Mitchell ordered. He turned back to Terah. "We ain't cheatin'. We comparin' answers. Jus' checkin, ain't cheatin'."

"Uh huh. And what class is this for?"

"Transfiguration," Mitchell said. Terah snatched up his homework and looked over it. "Wot are yeh doin'?"

"Fixing problems. Now give me a pen." Mitchell handed her his quill. She scratched out a few parts, corrected the multiple choice, and then handed over the paper. By the time she gave it back, Hannah and Nanda had resolved their argument. "That's right. Just ask me for help when you need it instead of going with your gut." She, Nanda, and Hannah continued on the way to class.

"I'll keep it in mind," Mitchell called after her.

"I bet you will," Andrew muttered, grinning idiotically. Mitchell shoved Andrew off the bench and then put his feet in the vacant spot. "Wot was tha' fer?"

"Fer annoyin' me," Mitchell explained. "Now yeh wanna copy it o' no?"

Andrew took the paper and fixed his answers. "Look, Mitch, jus' tell 'er yeh like her."

"How 'bout I punch yeh in the face?" Mitchell replied. He glared at his cousin. "If yeh wanna bo'er somebody so badly, go bug Oliver."

"I ain't gonna bug 'im tha' much 'cause he ain't as stubborn as yeh," Andrew replied. "Yeh, on the ot'er hand, yeh most likely ta mess up." He shoved his folder into his bag and took out a thick textbook with a few papers sticking out. He pulled one out and gave the worksheet to Mitchell. "I know tha' thi' un's right."

Mitchell sighed and took the paper, finishing up his homework. A few minutes later, they packed up their stuff and headed off to class, Mitchell silently sulking at what Andrew had said.

* * *

Okay, so tell me what you guys think and review! I love reviews. The next chapter's gonna have a few phone calls in it. You can guess to who. Hope you all had a good break!


	6. Chapter 6

Okay, I will beg and plead for forgiveness now! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever! I had massive writer's block and on top of it all, my computer crashed and then my tower stopped working, so I had to fix and reinstall everything twice! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't kill me! I have it! Here it is! Take it! (And now I go and run and hide under my covers and pray that none of you know where I live)

* * *

Chapter 6

"Ahh!" Andrew yelled, running through the lounge and down the hallway. Hannah, Nanda, and Derek looked up from the couch they were sitting on.

"It always worries me when he's running off screaming," Derek said, going back to his homework. "Makes me wonder if I should start running."

Nanda looked back to see what was going on the way Andrew had come. There was a group of Slytherin girls talking, but no one else. She leaned back to see behind a bookcase, looking for Kevin or Mitchell to come running out. No one was coming. She then turned back around and saw Mitchell and Oliver walking towards them, muttering about something.

"Hey," Hannah said, not really looking up. Mitchell and Oliver took the end of another couch. "What happened to Andrew?"

"Eh?" Mitchell asked. "I didna do nuthin' ta him."

"Did Kevin do anything?"

"Idiot's got detention," he explained.

Oliver sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He saw Cricket coming towards them. "Hey, mate." Cricket sat in a chair opposite the couch Oliver and Mitchell were sitting on. "Didja see Andrew?"

"He had business," Cricket explained. "I hope he didn't get lost in his rush."

"Oh yeah, he does tend to do that sometimes," Hannah mused, sucking the end of her quill.

Nanda pushed her hair behind her ear, which fell right back into its original place. "What does he do?" she asked.

"Wait until the last second to pee," Derek said like it was a completely normal thing to talk about. Nanda was going to say something, but then Derek interrupted with, "So wot did Kevin do ta get in detention?"

"It's be'er if yeh on'y know the minor details," Mitchell said.

Cricket smirked and stood up. "In other words, he 'accidentally' spilled his cauldron and melted Snape's shoes." He headed back out of the lounge. "When Andrew gets back, tell him Webb and I are lookin' for him."

Oliver and Derek caught each others eyes and smirked. That was one of the good things about Kevin; he always followed through on his promises. Mitchell leaned back in his seat and started flipping through a very worn book. They sat in silence for a while until Andrew showed up. He was about to sit down and Mitchell kicked him in the chest.

"Cricket an' Webb're lookin' fer yeh," he said.

"Wos it necessary ta kick me?"

"Yep."

As Andrew was leaving, Charlie walked into the lounge. He instantly found Oliver and Hannah and went over to them. "Hey, you lot, we've got a meeting."

"I didn't see anything for a meeting," Hannah muttered.

Charlie ignored her and asked, "Where's David?" Oliver shrugged and Mitchell grunted. Charlie sighed. "Useless."

"Wot I'm good at," Mitchell mumbled.

Charlie turned back to Oliver and Hannah. "Well, we've got a meeting. Let's get going." He grabbed Hannah's wrist and pulled her to follow him. Oliver got up and trailed behind, putting his hand behind Hannah's shoulder to keep her walking, who kept protesting. "Merlin, Hannah, do you hate Quidditch now?"

"No, I just don't want to go to a meeting," she answered.

"It's not gonna be that long. Oliver, grab him," Charlie directed, and Oliver caught David's sleeve.

"Wot's goin' on?"

"Meeting."

The three younger students stayed in Charlie's shadow as they headed towards the main doors. Outside, Lance Verhoff and Chase Tinder were sitting on one of the stone ledges, talking with two girls. Lance noticed Charlie and muttered something to one of the girls and headed over, but Chase kept whispering in his girl's ear. Charlie folded his arms and drummed his fingers against arm; Chase continued to ignore him. Charlie looked over at Lance and coughed. Lance walked back over and yanked Chase away and towards the pitch.

"I'll be back later, babe!" Chase yelled to his girlfriend, who covered her mouth to silence her giggles. Chase turned to Charlie. "That was not cool."

"I saved you from embarrassing your ass," Charlie defended himself. "You were grinning like an idiot."

Chase stopped dead. "I was _not_!"

"Yes you were," Hannah and Oliver voiced at the same time.

Chase folded his arms. "Yeah, well who asked you."

"Come on," Lance ordered and yanked Chase along.

Charlie led them down the lawns until they reached the lake, where they all sat down in a circle. As they sat down, Hannah's hand brushed against Oliver's, which she quickly jerked away and tried to hide her blush. Oliver failed to notice, but David didn't.

"Okay, so first I want to ask how was summer training?" Charlie started. There was a mumbling in the group and a few shrugs. "Jesus, you're acting like I woke you up at six. Did you forget how to talk?"

Hannah sighed and laid down on the grass. "It went lovely. Is that what you want to hear Charlie? Oliver, David, and I practiced three times a week for four hours. If I say that, can we go?"

"Okay, continuing on," Charlie said, "I know how much you were complaining about last year's Chaser…"

Lance and Chase started laughing. "Ohh… don't get me started on that bitch," Lance said.

"I wanted to rip her fucking head off! Telling me what to do like I didn't know anything," Chase rattled on. "Please tell me you told her things didn't work out." His eyes started pleading. "Please Charlie."

"She resigned before I got a chance to," Charlie explained. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "But that leaves us with a new problem. Now we need a new Chaser. And I want to get someone that fits with all of us."

"Yeh missed tha' mark las' time, Char," David said. "We all hated her. Even yeh did."

"No, it took me a week to realize I couldn't stand her," Charlie corrected him.

Hannah leaned against Oliver's shoulder. "Than why didn't you let her go like… right away?"

"Cause every'un else a' tryouts sucked," Oliver said. "Git off me."

"No! You're my pillow, remember?"

Charlie sighed as Oliver and Hannah continued to bicker. David, tired of it, grabbed a couple of small rocks and tossed them at their chests.

"Shut it!" David ordered.

"So anyways, spread the word, maybe I'll put a notice up, and we'll have tryouts next week. How does that sound with everyone?" Charlie asked. Lance and Chase gave him the thumbs up. Chase was looking really distracted, so Charlie told him he could go. "You three?"

"Yeah, tha' works," David said. "And Ollie'll be ecstatic so don' worry 'bout 'im."

"Thanks, Mum," Oliver said, smirking.

"Yer welcome. And I'm sure Hannah's not gonna complain."

"Slong as we're done here," Hannah muttered.

Charlie got up with Lance and they headed back to the castle. David saw Azra and Tank a bit away and went over to them. Oliver stood up, but Hannah remained laying on the ground.

"Yeh comin' or not?" Oliver asked, holding out his hand.

Hannah shrugged. "I'm just gonna stay out here for a while. I'll be in later." She slapped his hand and Oliver grinned. "Gonna ask Kaden to try out?"

"Might as well, he's okay," Oliver said. Over the summer, the group had played three on three and Kaden was the best of the others. "But let's not ask Nanda." She'd fallen off the broom.

"I agree," Hannah said. "See you later."

"Bye."

As Oliver left, Hannah rolled onto her stomach and took out her phone. It looked like a normal cell phone, which it was, it just had a few extra features. Derek's dad had been the one to come across it. He'd been messing with his phone to try and adjust it so he could receive calls while he was at work, since the magic kept interfering with his signal. It'd only been a few words and a different wire connection, but he'd gotten it to work. And being a Wood, he'd patented it and was now making good money off of it. Of course he'd been nice enough to adjust his nephews' phones as well. However, being so new, it did have its drawbacks. The best signal was outside the castle. You'd be lucky enough to get half a bar inside.

Hannah went to her contact list and found Kristen's number. She decided it was time to meet this girl. She pressed the send button and held the phone up to her ear.

Hundreds of miles south of where Hannah was laying on the lawns of Hogwarts, Kristen Rose was in her dormitory at La Escuela de San Juan para las Brujas (which translates to Saint John's School for Witches). Since school had only started two days ago, she still had to get her things in order. So her phone's sudden need to start ringing wasn't the most pleasant thing to her ears.

She snatched up her phone and looked at the number. When she didn't recognize it, she opened her phone and asked, "Hello, may I ask who's calling please?"

"Is this Kristen?" Hannah asked.

"Yes, who are you?"

"I'm Hannah Parker. You know my friend David, right?"

"I know a couple Davids. Which one are you talking about?"

"Tall, brown hair, Scottish, speaks English, Gaelic, and Spanish and likes to switch between them while talking. He was in Spain this summer for vacation."

"Oh, that David!" Kristen said. "Did he give you my number?"

"No, I stole it from him," Hannah explained. "I wanted to meet you."

Kristen paused and gave her phone a wary look. "Um… you do know that sounds sort of stalker-ish, right? Not to be mean, but I've never met you in person."

Hannah sighed and rolled on to her back. She twisted the green blades between her fingers and pulled a few up. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna come to your school in the middle of the night. I just thought it'd be cool to talk with someone out of the country."

"Don't you have relatives that live out of your country?" Kristen asked as she folded her shirts and tucked them neatly into a drawer.

"Well, sort of. They go out for business purposes. But that's not the same," Hannah prattled on. "So David said you move around a lot. Where've you been to?"

Kristen was now more irritated by this. She had to finish packing and this girl didn't seem like she'd get a hint and hang up. So she came flat out with it. "Look, I'm really busy right now. Could I maybe just write you or something. My phone is really shitty and it's not holding a signal."

"Sure," Hannah said. "Hope to hear from you." She shut her phone and pushed herself up. A second later a soccer ball was whizzing at her head. Instinctively, Hannah raised up a hand and summoned her magic. A foot from her hand, a green shield formed, roughly the size of her palm. The ball bounced off the shield, hit the ground, and Kevin's foot appeared, hooking the ball and bringing close. "Kevin… what have we said about kicking things at me."

"Try really, really, _really_ hard not to do it," Kevin replied.

"So why did this happen?"

"Cricket's fault!" Kevin yelled, pointing at his friend who was a good hundred feet away. Andrew stood next to him and was rolling his eyes. "Sorry."

"You should be," Hannah said, getting up. She closed the two foot gap between them and snatched the ball up. "And so you must be punished." She held the ball in both of her hands and started hitting Kevin on the head with it.

"Git away from me!" Kevin yelled as she continued. "C'mon, Hannah, jus' gimme me ball!"

"Not… Until… You… Learn… Your… Lesson!" Hannah explained, hitting him after each syllable. Kevin reached around her waist and started tickling her sides. She immediately dropped the ball and curled her legs towards her chest. "Stop!"

Kevin laid Hannah, not so gently by the way, on the ground, and got on top of her, now tickling her behind her neck and under her arms. Hannah was squealing and twisting, trying to get away. Of course, with Kevin on top of her, there was no where for her to go.

"Help!" Hannah half gasped. "Ollie! Where are you! Help me!"

"Ollie ain't here," Kevin explained. "No 'un can save yeh!" He paused for just a moment. "Say it."

"No." Hannah was way too proud. Or stubborn. Or maybe too stupid. "Never!"

"Just say it!"

"No!"

"C'mon!"

"No! You'll never make me say it! Never!"

By now, Andrew had come over to see why Kevin hadn't just gotten the ball and come over. He tried to suppress a smirk and folded his arms. "May I join?"

"Why, I'd be insulted if yeh didna!"

Andrew paced behind Kevin and knelt down. Kevin grabbed Hannah's wrist and forced them onto the ground. Hannah's eyes got big with worry. "No… no… Andrew, don't yeh dare!" Andrew was already slipping her shoe and sock off. "No! No! Don't!"

Too late.

Andrew was tickling her foot.

Hannah screamed and thrashed, unconsciously attempting to kick her legs to keep her feet safe of Andrew's fingers. But being pressed down by Kevin's weight, she couldn't get them away. She tossed her head back and forth, still screaming.

"Say it!" Kevin and Andrew hollered over the noise she was making.

"Mercy! Mercy! MERCY!"

Andrew stopped and Kevin got off her. Hannah rolled onto her stomach, gasping for breath. They both looked smug and gave each other a high five. Hannah was trying to make an angry face at them, but she couldn't manage it. She found her sock and shoe and safely stowed her foot away.

"The only way ta git her ta e'er say it," Kevin said.

"Pigs," Hannah grumbled. She tapped the soccer ball over. "Take your game away from me, please. And if you two ever do that again…" she began to threaten them, but they had taken off. Hannah grinned, crossed her arms, and watched their game for a bit until she heard her name called. She looked up to see Nanda coming down the lawn. "Hey!"

"Hey, you still alive? I thought maybe Kevin and Andrew were murdering you, you were screaming so loud," Nanda said. She grinned and hugged Hannah. "Soooo… whatcha doin'?"

"Well, before those brain surgeons over there attacked me, I called David's Spanish friend."

"Ohhh… did you creep her out?"

"I think so."

"Cool," Nanda replied, looking thoughtful. Then a second later, "I'm bored. Let's go swimming!"

She raced back up to the castle, knowing Hannah was going to follow her. They sprinted up stairs and down hallways until they reached the beginning of the corridor to where the Fat Lady's portrait was. They screamed the password (Brusslesprouts) and almost ran into the painting when she didn't open fast enough. Hannah vaulted over the couch which Raheem was lounging on. He ducked under his arms and then peeked over the edge. Oliver and Kaden watched the two of them dart up the girls' staircase and then acknowledged their return five minutes later when they came down in shorts and tanktops, towels slung over their backs.

"Goin' swimmin'?" Oliver asked. They nodded. "Danniell's already down there. We'll come wit'cha."

"We're not waiting for you," Hannah called as she and Nanda left, arms linked together.

Oliver shook his head. "Didn't expect you to."

Raheem slowly got up from the couch. "There are somedays when I'm really just terrified of Hannah. Today is one of those."

"Why?" Oliver asked as the three of them went up to their dorm to get their swimming stuff.

Raheem grimaced at the thought. "If she'd missed, there wouldn't ever be little baby Raheem's."

Oliver was already in his swimming trunks. "Aw, c'mon mate. Look at me! She's kicked me down dere 'nough times. An' I still a'right!"

Raheem and Kaden both had to cough to cover their laughter.

* * *

Okay, I promise I have more coming. The next chapter will refer to what happened while swimming. Now please don't kill me, otherwise none of you will read more and you'll just be angrier. Once again, I'm really sorry!

Oh, and if you don't all hate me with a burning passion yet, please review... Please?


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, I'm sorry I haven't update in forever, but life gets a little crazy (slowly begins to hide behind giant brick wall) so please don't kill me. I have a new chapter! Read it and let me know if you like it. This chapter's about... Mitchell and Terah and a lot of head conversations.

And please don't kill me!

* * *

Chapter 7

_"God dammit!"_ Mitchell thought to himself. _"Focus… it's important… focus on class."_ He tried to pay attention to what McGonagall was saying. But for some reason, some of the words she was saying must've been lost in translation while going from his ears to his brain.

He looked down at his notes. Nothing! Usually, if he was in a massive stupor, his subconscious took over and would write down at least a few things that had to have been relatively important to the lesson. But today, there was nothing. Nada! Zip. Zero. Zilch.

_"What the hell's the matter with me,"_ he asked, even though he knew perfectly well what the answer was. The girl sitting directly ahead of him, whose notebook was also blank, but it wasn't like she needed the theory when she had the practice down perfectly. Why oh why did McGonagall decide to put her with the fifth years?

Maybe it was Terah's perfect black hair… or the side of her cheek that showed whenever she turned her head to listen to something her neighbor asked… or maybe it was her whole damn head in general that was jamming his signal.

"Uhhhh…" Mitchell groaned, shoving his forehead into his hands. They'd been back at school for three weeks now and he hadn't taken a signal word down in his Transfiguration notebook. Maybe he could ask Terah for help…

_"No, no, no, no, no! She'll just think I'm a freaking idiot or trying to go out of my way just to talk with her."_

Why did he have problems when it came to her? Any other girl, and he'd be just fine. Quiet, calm, and collective… and oh my god, did McGonagall just say pop quiz?!!

"Just a quick ten questions over the last three days of class. As it's only the beginning of the school year, I trust that all of you still have most of your attention spans and this will be an easy ten points for you."

Was Mitchell getting paranoid, or did McGonagall look his way when she added that side comment.

But he didn't have time to think on that. He had to comb through every inch of his brain to see if he recalled anything from the last week of class. Terah turned around in her seat to give him the stack of quizzes that he had to pass back. As he took it, he quickly muttered, "Wot 'ave we been talkin' 'bout?"

Terah shook her head and muttered "Sorry" before turning to her quiz.

No surprise she was the first one done. Stupid know-it-all.

David was either the third or fourth, with Andrew right behind him. Mitchell was reading questions over and over to see if there was anything he could answer or at least BS. Two of them he could. He managed to sneak another three answers off the girl's paper next to him before she was finished. Then he found one that he was able to answer confidently. The others he just guessed. He turned his paper over and put his quill down.

When everyone was done, they switched papers. Terah once again twisted in her chair. "Switch with me?"

"Why, yeh know yeh got 'em all right," Mitchell grumbled, slightly rude.

Terah glared at him. "If you're going to be that way, then I don't want to switch with you." She turned to the girl next to her and handed her his paper.

Mitchell cursed himself.

The girl next to him, the one he'd cheated off of, offered to switch. He did so and took her paper. McGonagall read through the answers and the class marked correct or incorrect. The girl's paper he had, Benicia Teresini, missed two questions. He circled the number correct and handed the paper over. She gave his back, with a four circled. She had written in the correct answers for him, however.

"Crap," he let himself say.

Benicia looked over at him and said, "Not your best quiz, is it, I trust?"

"I don' understand 'alf o' wot's comin' outta her mouth," Mitchell complained. McGonagall was coming around and writing down scores in her grade book. He didn't fail to notice that the teacher wrote two marks when she was standing in front of Terah. "Or course."

"If you need help, I could tutor you," Benicia offered.

Mitchell was caught slightly off guard. Well, at least he wouldn't have to admit he was stupid in Transfiguration to Terah now. "Uh, sure. Thanks."

"No problem," she answered. "Do you want to start now, or wait until next week?"

Mitchell was about to say why not tonight, but then he remembered his brother had called for a Quidditch meeting. "Um… yeah, next week would work loads better."

"Okay," Benicia replied. "So we'll work this out next class, sound good?"

Then the bell rang. Benicia gathered her books and left, but before she was through the door, two girls were running up to her and were excitedly whispering with her. Mitchell groaned and stretched before getting out of his seat and walking across the room to where David sat.

"Hey, mate, lemme borrow yer notes," Mitchell ordered, holding out his hand.

"Why do yeh need mine?" David asked.

"Cause I haven't taken notes since class started this year," Mitchell explained. "And it's all Terah's fault because she's in our classroom now and I can't focus on anything."

"Then ask McGonagall to switch seats or something," David muttered as he handed over his notebook. "By the way, you ruin them and I'll kill you."

The two of them got up and headed for the door. Mitchell glanced behind his shoulder to see if Terah was still at her spot. She'd moved across the room to another desk and had a new Transfiguration book out. Mitchell's mouth dropped open and he'd stopped.

"Have yeh fergotten 'ow ta walk?" David hissed at him, turning around.

"Terah takes two Transfiguration classes?" Mitchell demanded.

David nodded at him like he was an idiot. "Aye. She takes ours and fourth years. That way she can take her Transfig O.W.L. early, but she still technically needs to have taken fourth year. Then she's wit us fer sixth an' seventh years."

Two more years of not taking notes because he would be too distracted?! That was too much for Mitchell. He was going to have to do something about her. She'd either date him, which would make Transfiguration more enjoyable, or reject him, and he'd just have to get over it and then he'd be able to focus on class again. There was no alternative.

Of course Mitchell was always known for his procrastination.

* * *

Hannah and Oliver were lagging behind the rest of the group as they walked along the corridor to class. They were both tired, having stayed outside swimming until nine thirty. Then, instead of going in afterwards, they took a walk around the lake twice, talking over Quidditch plans and about the list of people trying out for the open Chaser position. Finally, they had to rush up seven flights of stairs to get to the common room before Filch caught them, which he almost did.

"Ow, my legs hurt," Hannah whined. "Ollie, gimme a piggy-back."

"No," Oliver mumbled, staggering as Hannah pulled back on his shoulder. "Jus' keep walkin."

They'd reached the Transfiguration room and collapsed into the closest seats available. Oliver put his head down and began to snore softly. Hannah propped her chin on her hand and let her eyelids begin to droop. Before she could fall asleep, Terah was poking her forehead.

"Wake up!" she hissed. "C'mon! Merlin, Hannah, how late were you two out?"

"Till eleven," Hannah whispered, her eyes still shut. "Go away." She batted Terah's hand away.

Terah turned in her seat, huffed, and crossed her arms. First Mitchell was being rude and now Hannah was exhausted. Today was just not a good day.

Janelle slid in next to Terah. She dropped her books on the desk and then propped her head on her hand. "What are you so mad about today?"

"I'm not mad!" Terah replied.

Veronica sat on Terah's other side. "Yes you are. What's going on?"

"I'm not mad!"

Veronica leaned forward so she had a clear view of Janelle. "You know, Mitchell might've done something to set her off. Maybe he was flirting with some girl. You wouldn't've liked that, would you've?"

Terah gaped at her friends. It took a few seconds for her to recover from the accusations. "What? Are you saying I like Mitchell Wood?" Janelle nodded and Veronica rolled her eyes at the obviousness. Terah let out a scoffing laugh. "You're kidding, right? Mitchell? No way would that ever happen."

"Suuure," Veronica muttered.

"I do not! Mitchell's like… like… what Oliver is to Hannah!" she pointed behind her. Veronica and Janelle looked over their shoulders to see Hannah sleeping on Oliver's shoulder.

"Soooo… he's a pillow?" Veronica asked, raising her eyebrows.

Terah shrugged and started to play with her quill. "I guess. I mean, I dunno. Mitchell's just… he's Mitchell. Nothing more." Terah eyes her friends closely. "Does he really like me?"

"Well, sometimes he acts like it," Janelle murmured as more students filed in. "But then other times he's kind of oblivious to you. So wait… are you interested?"

Terah gave her a look of "You're-kidding-right" face and Janelle shut up. For the rest of class, everyone was silent. Terah kept playing with her quill and daydreaming instead of taking notes. What if Mitchell did like her? That would make things awkward. If she was honest with herself… yeah Mitchell was cute… but it was _Mitchell_… however, maybe she did sort of like him. But Janelle wasn't really specific. Mitchell could have any girl in school, why would he pause to think about his friend that way? Terah thought of the everyday clothes in her closet; just jeans and T-shirt; none of the really nice dressy shirts the other girls in school had. Mitchell had to like one of those other girls. So she wasn't about to talk herself into liking him only for him to get one of those girls to be his girlfriend.

* * *

Later that night, Mitchell had Quidditch practice. Or rather, Curt had assigned a Quidditch practice and only a half hour into it they had to stop because one of the Bludgers had hit Mitchell in the head. Now he was laying in a huge mud puddle with the team surrounding him. Curt stood over his brother while Kevin and Andrew kept slapping him at regular intervals.

"Wake… Up!" Kevin screamed in Mitchell's ear.

"Kevin, remember, yer tryin' ta wake 'im up, not break his ear drum," Curt warned. "Me ma ain't gonna be too happy if yeh damage his hearin'."

Andrew smacked Mitchell across the face again. "Mate, wake up! C'mon Mitch, git outta the mud!" He lifted up his Beater back but Curt grabbed it and ripped it away. "Sorry, thought it might've help," Andrew replied with an evil grin on his face.

"Mate, yeh know tha' creeps me out," Curt said. He sighed deeply and cocked his head to the side. "Alrigh', we're gonna do dis my way." He bent over and grabbed Mitchell by the ankles and lifted him up.

The sudden blood rush woke Mitchell up. He gasped and began thrashing around. Curt held him tightly and when Mitchell realized what was going on, Curt made sure he had his hands on the ground before he let him fall. Mitchell did a sort of half somersault so that he ended sitting upright.

"Um… wot 'appened?" he asked.

Curt shook his head. "Alright, practice is over. Go change. Make up tomorrow."

The rest of the team headed to the locker rooms. Curt waited until they were gone before turning to Mitchell. "Alright, mate, wot's going on wit yeh?"

Mitchell stood up, rubbing his head where the Bludger had hit. "It's nothing, Curt, don' worry."

Curt crossed his arms and stared down his brother. "Seriously, what's the matter?"

Mitchell sighed and thought for a moment. Really, Curt was the only one he could be perfectly honest with. Before he could stop it, the words came out. "I like Terah."

Curt grinned and clapped his brother on the head. "Is tha' really it? Yeh like Tee? Well, jus' git back to yer normal self and lemme know when everythin's be'er." He turned and headed for the warmth of the locker rooms. Mitchell folded his arms and scowled at his brother's back. "I know yer makin' faces at me!"

"Go away," Mitchell muttered, before picking up his broom and following the muddy tracks made by the team.

Inside the locker rooms, everyone was getting undressed or already naked and heading to the showers. The one good thing about an all boys team, no need to worry about offending any girls. Austin was gone from the group and Jeff was getting ready to go to the shower. Kevin had just pulled off the wife beater that was slathered in muck. The rest of Kevin was just as dirty as his shirt, that there was a distinct outline between where bare skin and clothing had been. Andrew was trying to clear his face of mud, but instead he succeeded in getting more of it into his eyes. Curt went straight to the hamper and, with difficulty, stripped himself of his Quidditch attire.

Mitchell shuffled over to his cousins and began pulling at his own rain soaked clothes. The second he opened his locker, Andrew asked, "So was it because of Terah."

"Shut up."

"Yeh had that same glazed look in yer eye tha' yeh had this mornin' in Transfig," Andrew said.

Mitchell finally got his shirt off, and then proceeded to slap Andrew across the back with it. "I said ta shut up."

Kevin snorted. Mitchell turned to glare at him. "Yeh got somethin' ta say?"

"Nope," Kevin replied, and then headed to the back of the locker room.

"Mitchell and Terah, sittin' in a tree. K–I–S–S–I–N–G," Andrew muttered just loud enough for Mitchell to hear. His cousin glared at him. "First comes luuve," Andrew taunted, just like a three year old would.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

And Mitchell responded with just like another three year old.

"Oy! Children! Cut it out o' I'll put yeh in time out!" Curt hollered, at the two of them, who were rolling around and punching at each other. "Kevin, break it up."

"No way," Kevin laughed as he watched. "This is too much fun!"

Curt grumbled, threw his dirty clothes in the direction of the hamper, and stalked over to the two of them. He grabbed Mitchell by the arm and pushed his foot into Andrew's stomach before pulling Mitchell away. Mitchell was still making kicks and swearing at Andrew, but Andrew was laughing. To silence Mitchell, Curt grabbed his ear and pulled, and then dropped Mitchell.

"Shut up and grow up," Curt said over his shoulder before heading to the showers.

* * *

Alright, next chapter is about... well I don't know just yet, but give me a little time (I'll try not to go over a month!) If you guys have anything you want in specific, let me know about it and I'll work with it. Other than that, nothing! Just review! They make me smile. =)


	8. Chapter 8

Okay, this chapter is a little short and not too much is happening, but it's leading into the next chapter, which I'm going to try to get up in about two weeks. So here you go, enjoy, and review. I will remind you at the end to review.

* * *

Chapter 8

Kaden had been really quiet all day. No one had really noticed expect for Danniell. (But in the others' defense, they all seemed to be too tired to notice anything at all.) So when Kaden still seemed distracted and out of it that night, Danniell decided to go talk with him.

"Hey, Kaden, earth to Kaden!" Danniell said, waving his hand in front of Kaden's face. "You alive in there?"

Kaden jerked out of his stupor. "Oh, yeah mate, I'm alright."

Danniell cocked his head to one side. "What's wrong?"

Sighing, Kaden stuck his hand into his jean pocket and pulled out a slightly crushed piece of paper. He handed into to Danniell, who quickly read it.

"But… but the doctors don't _know_ if there's anything wrong, so that's good, right?" Danniell tried to sound hopeful. Kaden just looked at him like he was crazy. "Well, isn't no news good news?"

"Mate, think this over. If you knew there was something wrong with your mum and the doctors couldn't figure it out, would that be good news?" Kaden took the paper back and slouched more in his chair. "I dunno, maybe I just worry too much about her."

"Your mum's going to be fine," Danniell assured him. "And for the record, yes, you do worry too much. She's your mother, not the other way around."

Kaden stuck his tongue at him and was about to retaliate when there was a loud scream from upstairs. Both boys, as well as the rest of the common room, stared at the stairs, wondering what was going on, but they didn't have to wait long. Nanda came hurtling out of the staircase and, just as she was three steps from flat ground, tripped over her feet and somersaulted into the common room. Raheem quickly followed after her, minus the tumbling. Danniell and Kaden shook their heads and walked over to the gloating Raheem and slightly bruised Nanda.

"Um… do we want to know?" Kaden asked.

"He tickled me!" Nanda shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at Raheem.

Danniell crossed his arms at Raheem. "Mate, what have we talked about?"

"It was too tempting," Raheem answered in the kind of voice a three year old uses when he knows he's in trouble.

Frustrated and angry, Nanda stomped to her feet, and then proceeded to jump on Raheem's foot three times. He laughed and easily shoved her off him. Nanda slapped Raheem's arm and he pushed again. Danniell grabbed Nanda's arm and shoved her into a chair.

"Stop it!"

"No!"

"Why are we hurting Nanda again?" Hannah asked, appearing from behind Raheem. "Let me guess, boy genius here is the mastermind behind it?"

"No! I'm the good guy!"

"You're evil!"

"Nanda," Danniell warned.

Hannah scowled at all of them. "Alright, let's lay this down. You, Raheem, are mean and evil and need to leave Nanda alone. Nanda, don't be alone with Raheem, because you know he makes you angry. Danniell, you keep getting in between this and one day Nanda's gonna rip you apart. And Kaden… you're good. I love Kaden." She hugged him around the waist and squeezed.

Kaden patted her on the head. "Okay, well then. Hannah, do you plan on letting me go any time soon?" Hannah shook her head. "Well, where's Oliver?"

"I don't know. Sleeping?"

Danniell raised an eyebrow and then stuck his hand in the air. "I've got a question. Are we done fighting for the day? Because I don't know about you lot, but I've gotta cram for Potions."

"I don't," Nanda replied smugly.

Raheem rolled his eyes. "Well of course the know-it-all's ready for it."

Nanda slapped Raheem again before darting up the stairs. Hannah smiled at the boys before she too jumped up the stairs after Nanda. They were the only two up in their dorm, so they lounged against some of bean bags and pillows that all the girls had thrown into the middle of the room.

"Are you excited for the Hogsmeade trip?" Nanda asked Hannah.

She nodded. "Yeah, I can't wait. It's gonna be so much fun. And you can get back at Raheem."

"Nah, I don't think I will," Nanda said. Hannah sighed loudly. "What?"

"You do this all the time! Raheem bugs you, and all you do is let it go! Do you think that _maybe_ that's why he keeps it up? 'Cause he knows he's not going to get yelled at for it?" Hannah asked. Nanda shrugged and grinned. Hannah scoffed.

* * *

"I don't understand what exactly you're having trouble with Transfiguration," Benicia said from across the room, watching Mitchell successfully change the book into a yapping poodle. "I mean, you didn't have any problems there."

Mitchell shrugged and the book was once again on the table. "I jus' haven't taken any notes. I dunno why, but I can' process anythin' tha' comes outta tha' woman's mouth!" He waved his wand again, expecting to bring the poodle back. But this time, there was an explosion of indigo smoke, and Mitchell inhaled a lot of it. He started coughing into his fist. "Yeah… ahhh!... that wasna… ack… right."

"What did you just do?" Benicia asked in surprise. She got up to look at the table, but now there was a bunch of broken glass. "Were you trying to make a vase or something?"

"No, a poodle!"

After a quick glance, they both knew that the book was ruined, so Benicia swept the shards into a bag and threw it in the trash. Meanwhile, Mitchell rummaged through his bag of stuff he'd brought along to practice with.

"What next? An orange, or… Kevin's shoe? Wot the hell is tha' doin' in here?" He pulled it out and threw it on the floor, as if afraid of getting germs. "Right, we're making this inta somethin' not gross." He quickly waved his wand and muttered and incantation under his breath. The shoe jumped a little, twisted, and then there was a pillow on the floor. "Somethin' tha' I wouldna fall asleep on. Tha' smell might kill me."

Benicia laughed and waved her own wand. The pillow was now a roll of tape. "That seems pretty harmless."

"Until Kevin uses it to wrap around me head with it," Mitchell mumbled.

Benicia put the roll of tape up on a shelf. "Are you tired? You seem a little crabby."

Mitchell shrugged and shoved his wand in his pocket. "A bit. I didna git much sleep las' night."

"Really? That's too bad. You want to go to bed soon?" Benicia asked politely. "I'll go with you." Mitchell's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Benicia realized how awkward that sounded. "I meant I'll walk with you to the common room. Not to… you know."

Mitchell grinned at her. "Nah, forget it. I know wot yeh meant. And sure, if yeh want ta walk with me, that's fine." He picked up his bag and threw it over his shoulder. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," she replied, grabbing hers as well. The two of them headed down the corridor to the Ravenclaw common room. When they got outside the portal entrance, Benicia tapped Mitchell on the arm so he turned around. "Um, if you don't have any plans for the Hogsmeade weekend, you want to go hand out? I mean, unless of course Kevin has some evil plan…"

"I'll pass on his plan. Sure, I'll go with you," Mitchell said, smiling. "See you then, okay?"

"Yeah, see you," she replied, holding her enthusiasm until Mitchell was safely in the common room.

* * *

The next day at breakfast, Kevin was very sulky. Derek, who was sitting next to him, was fed up with his surliness. He sighed, and then shoved his bowl away before turning to Kevin. "Mate, deal with it. You can't spend every Hogsmeade weekend torturing Mitchell in very unusual ways. So he's got a date for the day. How about you go get one! Then you can shut up and leave me alone!"

Kevin pushed his cousin in the head and got up, walking down the aisle. He looked around at what was going on. Nothing much of interest, just the usual day by day sort of happenings. The Slytherins were sulking around as usual, Ravenclaws had their books all open, and the other side of the hall was just the same, jumping around and talking with friends. Kevin saw what he was looking for, and quickly grabbed David by the arm and yanked him back out into the Entrance Hall.

"Hey! I'm hungry!" David hollered as Kevin dragged him away from the food. "Wot the hell's the matter with yeh?!"

"Promise me _you_ don' have a date fer Hogsmeade," Kevin pleaded.

"Wot are yeh goin' on abou'? No, I ain't goin' with anyone!"

"Good, yer goin' with me, and we're gonna wreak havoc on Mitchie and his date," Kevin said. David didn't look too happy about his forced decision.

Across the hall, the usual group was making plans for what to do that weekend. At the moment, Oliver was pushing Hannah in the arm so that she was nearly laying on the bench so he could get a word in edgewise.

"Nah, firs' we're goin' ta the Three Broomsticks, 'cause Madam Rosmerta's got tha' Halloween drink an' candy, and there's on'y gonna be so much o' it. _Then_ we can go to Honeydukes and git yer goddamn candy," Oliver directed the last part to Hannah.

"No! Honeydukes will only take a few minutes! We'll sit in the Three Broomsticks for at least two hours because of you fours' inane chatter!" Hannah argued. She shoved at his arm, but it did no good. "Git off me, you oversized oaf!"

"Stop yelling at him," Kaden pleaded. "You two really need to get it under control. I mean, what's with you lately?"

"Nothing," they answered in unison.

Nanda intervened to stop any further arguing. "Look, Hannah, how about you and I stop there quick and get the candy, then we'll meet the guys up for a drink."

"Or three," Raheem coughed into his elbow. Nanda smacked his head.

"And when we want to leave, we can go to Gladrags' and get some new clothes. Is that a good plan?" Nanda asked.

Hannah bit her lip. She really had wanted Oliver to spend the day with her, but apparently he was too stupid to catch the hint. "Yeah, that's great. And then at the end of the day, we'll drag them out and back to the castle."

"Sounds good," Nanda replied, and the two slapped each other's hands.

* * *

Okay, that's the end. Next chapter's the Hogsmeade trip. Slight drama, possible mud throwing, and some hurt feelings. And if you people review, I'll be more apt to get along with it! Okay, maybe not, I'll still hold onto my end, but reviews do make me happy!

Like I said, here's your reminder. REVIEW!!

And also, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, and any other holiday you guys celebrate during this month.


	9. Chapter 9

Okay people, before any of you kill me because it's taken me so long to update, I've been very busy! Applying for college sucks! And senioritis is a nightmare! Right now, I just want to get to the end of the quarter (only 4 more days, but I've got tests and papers and labs due!) Anyways, here's chapter 9. I'll work on updating, but my physics teacher says he's behind and needs to get a lot more in before the AP test (yuck :-P) So here it is! Tada!

* * *

Chapter 9

"I love getting out of the castle!" Kaden yelled as he jumped into the air. "Freedom!"

Oliver pushed Kaden away from him, as he had nearly fallen on top of Oliver. "Stop it!" And for good measure he sidestepped so that he was on the other side of Raheem. But Oliver was happy to be out, too. After a solid eight weeks at school, it was nice to finally stretch his legs. Also, the teachers were pretty good about not assigning homework over the Hogsmeade weekend. Except for Snape, but there's always the one.

"Hey, did you guys hear about how Mitchell's got a date for Hogsmeade?" Hannah asked. Oliver nodded, but the others looked at her, wanting to know more. "That Benicia girl in Ravenclaw. Does anyone know much about her?"

"I'm just trying to get over the fact that Mitchell's got another date!" Danniell said. "I mean, he went out with what's-her-face for nine months. Thought he was still pining over her."

"He made out wit three girls in France o'er the summer," Oliver said. "Believe me, he's over her." He swung his arm over Hannah's shoulders. "So, my deares' midget, any other news yeh got ta share wit us?"

"You have to shove your growth spurt in everyone's face, don't you?" Hannah asked. Oliver just grinned like an idiot. "Well, if you must know, I heard that Marcus Flint is planning on sabotaging our team by jumping you and breaking your right arm."

Oliver's grinned was wiped off his face. "Are you serious?"

Hannah smacked him in the chest with her fist. Lately it wasn't getting the same effect. Oliver was only a month away from turning fifteen and already his chest was getting harder. There's a big difference between punching ten year old chub and fifteen year old muscle. Hannah had to flex her fingers a little after that.

"Of course I'm not!"

Oliver's face returned back to normal. He hadn't even noticed the hit. Hannah scowled at this, but she quickly got over it. "Anything knew going on with you, Oliver?"

"Like yeh don' know!" Oliver smirked at her. Then he looked at her hard. "Are yeh an' Nanda seriously gonna leave me wit these… things?" He motioned at Kaden and Danniell who were racing into Hogsmeade looking like idiots. Some geese apparently agreed with Oliver and took off in a cloud of brown and grey to avoid being trampled by the two boys.

Hannah patted his back sympathetically. "You wake up in one piece every morning. They won't tear you apart in the middle of the day."

Oliver didn't look very happy.

After Hannah and Nanda said goodbye to the boys, they headed down the street to Honeydukes. It was a nice day for the end of October, with a light breeze winding around the shops and cottages. However Nanda, being a freeze baby, was hugging her coat to stay warm; but Hannah only had a long sleeved shirt on. As they walked, they saw plenty of other students from school, some running in and out of stores, others playing in huge piles of leaves, and a few visiting family that lived in the village. They smiled and waved to their other friends before getting to the shop.

Inside, it was nearly empty, as the shop had only been open for an hour or so. This meant that Nanda and Hannah could take their time. Today though, they didn't talk very much. With their friendship, they often had their loud and nonstop conversations, and others they were simply quiet and just enjoyed each other's company. Also the fact that when they got to the Three Broomsticks there would be continuous talk about whatever it was the boys were talking about today. So they decided to conserve their energy for later.

After leaving Honeydukes, the girls found that in the short span of time the streets were already full of other students. They took their time making their way towards the Three Broomsticks, and a few times would have to get clear out of the way to avoid being trampled by the older students. While outside, they saw Janelle walking towards them. They waved at her, and a few seconds later Janelle realized who it was and waved back.

"Hey, Hannah, Nanda," Janelle said as she reached them. "Where's your entourage?" Nanda shrugged and Hannah pointed towards the Three Broomsticks. Janelle understood immediately and sighed. "Typical boys."

"Tell me about it," Nanda replied. "Anyways though, where are you off to?"

"Going to lunch at Ragger's with Veronica and Tee," Janelle said. "You want to come along? Something tells me those boys will jump you the second you walk in the door."

Hannah answered, "Sure," but Nanda said, "Hannah, you can't go. Remember, Oliver _needs_ you."

Hannah laughed along with Janelle. "Oh yes, how could I forget? He's afraid that they're gonna hurt him. Stupid boy." She started to follow Janelle. "He'll just have to learn to fend for himself. Let's go, Nanda."

A few minutes later, the three of them were inside Ragger's Pub and had found Terah and Veronica at a table in the middle of the room. Hannah and Nanda smiled at the other two girls as they took their seats. Veronica glanced over at Janelle.

"Janelle, what have I said about picking up hobos?" she asked in a motherly sort of voice. Janelle shrugged innocently. "Well, they can stay for lunch, but you have to take them to the shelter tonight."

"Okay, Mother," Janelle answered. She flipped through her menu absentmindedly. "I decided to save them from a fate worse than death."

"Ah! Lunch with Ollie and his DORK's?" Terah asked. Hannah nodded. Terah and Veronica smiled and chuckled. "I suppose Janelle did them a favor."

Veronica nodded. "We'll let it pass this one time. But Janelle, I don't want you bringing home any more sad people who need more female friends. Got it?"

Janelle rolled her eyes but then noticed two people walking outside. "Is he seriously on a date with her?" she asked out loud.

"Who?"

"Mitchell and Benicia."

The three Ravenclaw girls twisted around in their seats to get a better view of the outside. Sure enough, the two in question were walking past. But then they turned and Mitchell held open the door to Ragger's for Benicia. Janelle's, Veronica's and Terah's mouths all dropped as the two found a table to sit at. Hannah and Nanda sighed and paid more attention to their food than the couple across the room.

"This can't seriously be happening."

"Mate, wrong chica!"

"I told you guys you were stupid."

"No, c'mon! Did any of _you_ know about this?"

Nanda sighed again as the others babbled. Yep, Ravenclaws were very smart. But they also seemed to be uber gossipy. Even Terah, whom Nanda liked the best, was going nonstop. Only, it wasn't about Mitchell and Benicia… _oh Lord, was that going to be the new couple name at Hogwarts?_… something about that her friends were idiots. Well, Nanda personally had to agree with her, even though she wasn't too sure what it _was_ about.

Poor Hannah, as much as she tried to ignore it, couldn't keep the remarks from reaching her brain. It's very awkward to be sitting with girls and listen to them complain, bitch, and gush over a boy who was nearly a brother to her. Hannah knew that if it didn't stop soon she would have to excuse herself.

And a few minutes later, she did. Hannah politely said goodbye, left a few coins on the table, motioned to Nanda, and then walked as quickly as she was able to without looking like a complete idiot. She would have kept going at that speed, but had to stop when she walked straight into Terrance Higgs and Adrian Pucey and then proceeded to fall down. The two Slytherins laughed and kept going as if nothing had happened. Scowling, Hannah was about to push herself up she noticed a hand in her face.

"Need a lift?" Marcus Flint asked her politely, not in an obnoxious or "let's humiliate the Gryffindor even more" way. Hannah accepted the invitation, got up, and started dusting her jeans off. "Sorry about them. They're kinda dicks."

"Yeh think?" Hannah asked in a rather bitchy tone. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she was sorry for it. "Oh God, no, ignore that. What I meant to say was thanks, don't worry about it." She smiled weakly. Flint didn't look so sure about what she had just said. "No seriously, don't think about it. Just… life's getting a little crazy right now."

"Ah," Flint said. "Well, I better getting going before those two take out someone else. See you around, Parker."

"See you, Flint."

* * *

Oliver checked his watch again to make sure it was still working. It was almost two; where the hell were the girls? Immediately, Oliver was in protective mode. He had his phone out and was going through his contacts to decide who he should text first. David and Derek were usually the most observant. Then maybe Andrew. Definitely not Kevin, he had the attention span of a frog. And not Mitchell. Dates were _Do NOT Bother Me_ kinds of situations. Hell, Oliver would call in the Navy if it meant protecting Hannah.

"Oliver, are you even paying attention?"

"Uh huh," he mumbled, starting to text a message to Derek.

"Mate, look up here."

Oliver glared at the speaker, who turned out to be Kaden.

"Or go back to whatever it was you were doing."

He grunted something that might have been "Thanks." But it could've easily been "Fuck off" for all Kaden heard. Kaden leaned over to his right to whisper to Raheem, "What's wrong with him?"

"I'm gonna go with that stick you shoved up his ass this morning is starting to get uncomfortable," Raheem answered. Kaden grinned. Yeah, it was fun to piss off Oliver in the mornings. But usually Oliver was a good sport about it. Today, however, Oliver had apparently taken residence up on Planet FU from the way he was acting. Then Kaden realized that Hannah and Nanda still weren't back after nearly three hours. He looked over at Raheem and mouthed "girls" at the other two.

Danniell, getting the picture, said, "Oliver, stop freaking out. They'll be just fine. It's only Hogsmeade." He glanced over Oliver's head. "Hell, they're here right now."

Oliver jerked his head up so fast he would probably have to see a chiropractor. Nanda and Hannah slid into the two empty seats waiting for them. Already the tension that was emanating from Oliver was gone. Still, Kaden was being sulky. Sometimes Oliver was just no fun. Especially if there was even the slightest doubt that Hannah was okay. After all, Oliver had made them all stop playing soccer when Hannah twisted her ankle in a snake hole. She was fine, but Oliver was worse than his own mother, and that was saying something.

"Hey, wot happened? Yeh git lost?" Oliver asked.

Hannah smiled and shook her head. "No. We ran into Janelle and went to lunch with her, Veronica, and Terah. Why? Oliver, did you call in the cavalry again?"

"He was about to," Raheem muttered to Nanda, who giggled.

"No, I didna git to it," Oliver said. He slung his arm over Hannah's shoulders. "Well, yeh missed an interestin' bar fight here."

"What?" Hannah and Nanda exclaimed. "Seriously, there was a bar fight?"

Oliver nodded and proceeded to tell them about how two drunken goblins got in an argument over some deal. They had started yelling at each other, and then one of them hit the other in the nose. He then smacked his friend over the head with his glass and knocked the goblin out.

"So it wasn't a crazy fight like in the movies," Kaden finished. "Still, really funny when Madam Rosemerta came out her and was shrieking at them to get out of her bar."

"We missed that?" Hannah asked, slightly disappointed. "Damn it, why didn't we leave sooner?"

"Nah, it happened righ' afta we got here," Oliver said. "I _told_ yeh we shoulda gone here firs'."

"Shut up, Oliver, nobody asked you," Hannah replied, smacking him in the chest.

Kaden couldn't help but smirk. Yep, sometimes Oliver was a pain in the ass when it came to Hannah's welfare. Seems like the favor was still not ever returned. And still, after fourteen years of this their friendship lasted. Kaden hoped that, as strange as these five people were sitting at the table with him, they would be friends until they all kicked the bucket.

* * *

End! Sorta... of that chapter. Geez, don't look at me like I'm done with this story. No where near close. Now calm down!

And will you guys PLEASE review! Pretty please with sugar and sprinkles, and chocolate syrup and whipped cream on top! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though, review and tell me what you think.


	10. Chapter 10

Alright, so right away there's some Harry in this chapter. Hope you like this part. And there's Oliver and Hannah just hanging out at the end.

* * *

Chapter 10

Harry stretched out on the grass of the school yard and gazed up into the cloudy gray sky. So far this school year was just as bad as the last ones had been. Dudley and his gang had gone on beating Harry up every few days; today he'd finally gotten some peace from them and was taking the chance to relax. It was rather warm for the end of October, so he was able to be outside in just a T-shirt and jeans. While he lay there, something caught Harry's eye.

Immediately, he was up and standing, ready to run away if it was Dudley or one of his friends. But there was no one around; the other students were at lunch. He checked again where he had seen the movement, and was surprised to see an owl hopping around on the ground, paying no attention to him. It was pecking the ground, looking for bugs or mice. Harry stepped back quietly but then the owl glanced up at him, turned its head a bit to the side, and then skipped over to Harry.

Harry had a few pieces of bread in his pocket that he had planned to eat, but instead he pulled it out of his pocket, tore a piece away, and placed it in front of its beak. The owl quickly snapped it up, swallowed, and then gazed at him, waiting for more. A few minutes later, Harry was out of bread. Now he was a little nervous; what if the owl got mad that there was no more food? But the animal seemed to understand that Harry was done feeding it and it flew up into a tree to perch on the branch.

"You're a funny creature, you know that?" Harry asked out loud. The owl twisted its head around to look at him. "Aren't you supposed to be asleep during the day?" The owl appeared to shrug.

"Talking to owls now, eh, Potter?!"

Harry groaned but didn't bother to turn around. He already knew who it was.

"I think Potter's going crazy, Dud."

"Tell me about it. Cousin!" Harry darted off, away from them. "Don't you run away, Cousin!"

Harry ran as fast as he could through the yard and turned around the kitchen building. He had a good enough head start; if he could just get behind the trash cans he'd be safe…

"Dudley! Found him!"

Sprinting at top speed, Harry made a dash for the cans. He jumped up and pulled his legs close to his chest so they wouldn't hit the cans and give him away. Unconsciously, he had closed his eyes; it always made him feel safer if he couldn't see his tormenters. However, it didn't seem like he'd gotten behind the cans; there was too much wind. Harry cursed himself for misjudging the jump and now Dudley and his friends were going to beat him to a pulp. So Harry peeked, and then had to shut his eyes tight again.

He wasn't on the grass; he was on the kitchen roof. After a few seconds to overcome the shock, Harry opened his eyes and gazed down at the four boys gawking up at him.

"How the hell did he get up there!"

"Get down here, Cousin, or I'll tell Mum!"

"Someone get the principal! She'll love this."

"You're in trouble now, Potter."

Harry knew he would be in deep trouble if he was found up on the roof. But there wasn't enough money in the world to get him to try climbing down to avoid detention. So he decided to bide his time while Dudley went to get the principal and then for her to call the fire department to get him down. While he was waiting, the owl flew up to sit with him. Harry very gently ran his hand down its back a few times, and the owl affectionately nibbled his fingers.

* * *

Fridays had to be the best day of the week, excluding weekends, for fifth years. At least for Mitchell it was, because he only had one class in the morning, double Charms, and then he had the rest of the day to himself. So the Friday before the first Quidditch game of the year, he was walking aimlessly about the castle. Before he knew it, he'd ended up in the Transfiguration courtyard. No one was there, save for his brother and a red head.

Curt and Charlie Weasley were standing about twenty feet, taking turns casting spells at each other, and then removing the effects. Mitchell stood to the side of the duel, watching their skill. Some of the spells Mitchell recognized, but there were quite a few he'd never heard of. But he'd soon understand what one of them meant.

Charlie shouted out "Espidalis!" and the air seemed to ripple around Curt. He yelled "Refelic!" just before the spell reached him. If Mitchell had known what the spell did, he would have understood to take out his wand and protect himself. However, he didn't have that knowledge and the spell bounced off Curt's shield and crashed into Mitchell. He was knocked off his feet, flipped around, crashed into the ground on his back, and repeated twice, leaving him fifteen feet from where he had originally been.

"Oy! Mitch, sorry 'bout tha'. Didna know yeh wouldna stop it," Curt said, helping his brother up. "Yeh alrigh'."

"Aye, I'm fine," he answered, arching his back a bit to stretch the muscles. "Practicing fer Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Charlie nodded his head. "Yeah. Hey, mate, listen, I didn't mean to hurt you," he apologized. Mitchell shook his head to tell him it wasn't necessary.

"Yeh did a good job. I mean, if tha' was wot was supposed ta happen." Charlie nodded. "Well then, it worked."

Curt sat down on a bench. "So, Mitch, wot yeh up ta today?"

"I dunno. Wasting time," he answered.

"Why aren't yeh wit yer girlfriend?"

Mitchell raised his eyebrows. "I don' have a girlfriend."

Curt glared at Charlie. "I _told_ yeh it wasna true."

"I only told you what I heard."

"So… um… why are people sayin' I got a girlfriend?"

Charlie laughed, tossing his head back. "Mate, your brother's a bit dumb in this department!" He ran a hand through his hair and looked back over at Mitchell. "The girl you went to Hogsmeade with. I don't remember names!"

Mitchell finally caught on. "Oh. You mean Benicia. About that… definitely not my girlfriend. And besides, I woulda thought everyun woulda be talkin' 'bout how Kevin nearly _maimed_ me."

Kevin was still grumpy over Mitchell dropping out of plans that he felt he had to teach Mitchell a lesson about keeping his promises. The lesson included knocking Mitchell face first into the ground, followed by a scuffle, and then both of them rolling into a ravine where Kevin proceeded to stuff gravel into Mitchell's boxers.

Curt clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Mate, get used ta it. It's been nearly sixteen years since he came inta this world and I don' think he plans on stoppin' soon."

Mitchell shrugged his hand off. "Aye, I know. Well, I better go talk wit Benicia 'bout this. See you, Curt. Bye, Charlie."

* * *

Oliver and Hannah stretched out on the slopping lawns of the school, watching the other students running around, enjoying what could very easily be the last good weather of the year until April. Hannah rested with her head on Oliver's chest and he had a protective arm lying across her waist. Hannah quietly hummed a song to herself while Oliver watched Danniell and Kaden kicking a ball around. Oliver took a deep breath and hugged Hannah tighter to his side.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Love yeh," Oliver answered.

"Mmhmm, yeah," Hannah said, not really paying attention. She rolled onto her side, propping herself on her elbow. "So, you ready for the Quidditch game tomorrow?"

Oliver grinned and nodded. "O' course! Merlin, Banni, do yeh even know me?" He ran his hands through her hair and then proceeded to rumple it. She scowled at him but did nothing to stop it. "And yeh? Yeh nervous o' somethin'?"

"About you! I hope you don't hurt yourself like you did back in second year," she retaliated. Oliver smirked and rubbed his head where the Bludger had smacked him during that game. There was just the slightest dent from that accident. "Because I'm not keeping a weeklong vigil over your comatose body."

"Gee, thanks a bunch," he answered. Stretching, he yawned and tucked his arms underneath his head. "So, Banni, got yer eyes on any boys? Do I need ta beat 'em up?"

Hannah sighed. "No, Dad, everything's okay. You don't need to scare any boys away." Then she noticed Oliver's mischievous smile. "Or your cousins! Do you want me to end up an old miserable bat because I was never able to get a date at school because of you?"

"Uhhh… no."

"Good answer, Oliwa."

With that she snuggled into his leather jacket, taking in the smell of it. Oliver's scent was always the most comforting thing for Hannah, even when she didn't need to feel secure. Out of habit, he put his arm back so that it was wrapped around her waist. Hannah opened her eyes just a bit to look at him.

"And you? Have you got a fancy for any girl here?" she asked.

"Hm… let's think…" He held out just long enough to know she was getting irritated. "Nah, ain't nobody tha's caught me eye."

"So I guess we'll just be single hobos for the rest of our lives."

"I don' plan on bein' a hobo."

"Fine, you'll be filthy stinking rich and I'll live in your basement then."

Oliver laughed at this, shaking Hannah a bit as his chest heaved. He pulled her up so that they were both laying parallel to each other. "Don' yeh already do tha?" Hannah smacked his cheek playfully and pouted. "Okay, I'm sorry 'bout tha'. But yeh left it out in the open."

"Yeah, whatever, you jerk," Hannah elbowed him in the side and then stood up.

Oliver was immediately sitting up, watching her. "Hey! Where yeh goin'?"

"Away from you!" Hannah yelled over her shoulder, starting to run off.

Oliver leaped up and sprinted after her. She didn't get very far before he overtook her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled them down to the ground. But Hannah didn't fall down with him, and it resulted in the two of them tumbling down the gentle slope of the lawns.

"Oliver, you overgrown buffoon! Get off me!"

"Yeh shouldna run away."

There was a bit of a scuffle as they tried to free themselves from the other, which didn't prove to be an easy task. Somehow Hannah had gotten her shoe stuck in Oliver's jacket sleeve and he had ended up twisted between her legs. When they were finally free of each other, they were both laughing at what had happened and went back to lounging on top of each other.

"Ah, Banni, I dunno wot I'd do without yeh," Oliver sighed.

"I dunno. Find a new best friend. Spend more time with Derek or David," she suggested.

"Nah, it ain't the same," Oliver admitted. Just then he saw Charlie walking towards them. "Guess we got a last minute team meeting." They got up and followed their Captain towards the Quidditch pitch.

* * *

Okay, so next chapter will be Quidditch. Everyone enjoys that! (I know I do...) So please let me know what you thought. Please?

So, um... I will **_TRY_** (try being the opperative word) to update soon, but I'm warning you now that my next two weeks are booked solid with stuff for drama club. And then there's AP tests and all this other stuff... (sigh) I hate this. But I will do my best. Pinky promise.


	11. Chapter 11

Alright, so if anyone actually reads this thing, this is just a replacement from my old Chapter 11. I was (once again) reading Harry Potter and I realized that this chapter was against Quidditch history, and that Gryffindor actually needed to lose this game. So I just changed the outcome of the match and a few paragraphs. So that's all that happened.

For all of you that don't read this intro, just smile and start reading.

To those that do, I'll see you at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 11

Oliver moaned into his sheets as his alarm went off. He quickly shut it off to avoid waking up his roommates. It was a serious mental battle with himself as he swung his legs out of bed and headed for the bathroom. His body was begging him to go back to his bed, but his mind wanted him up to get ready for the day and to go through his compulsive morning routine.

He went straight for the sink and drank a glass of water. Then he splashed his face with cold water to finish waking up. After brushing his teeth, Oliver checked his chin and jaw in the mirror, looking for any signs of facial hair. He'd only just recently started having to shave, but he could often go two or three days without it. Seemed like he'd go without this morning. He rubbed his eyes, getting rid of the rest of the sleep that was nestled there, and then jumped in the shower.

Once he was done in the bathroom, Oliver went to his trunk, pulling out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He got dressed, threw his dog tags over his neck, kissed the blank tag, and then headed down to the common room. Every morning before a Gryffindor Quidditch game, Oliver would go through these motions. He didn't truly believe in luck with repetition; he really did it to calm his nerves.

A half hour after he got to the common room, Charlie joined him on the couch. They both nodded at each other but didn't say much. Oliver knew Charlie was nervous about this game; he was putting a lot of faith in a new Chaser whose name Oliver couldn't remember for the life of him.

Eventually the rest of the team was in the common room, just in time to head down for breakfast. As they walked down the stairs, Oliver glanced over at the newest addition to the team. She was tall for the average second year, but very lanky. She had medium brown skin, and her head was covered in sleek black dreadlocks. When Oliver first met her on the pitch, she had an air of confidence about her. Now, however, she seemed unsure of herself.

Breakfast was a semi silent affair. Oliver and David discussed how the light cloudiness would protect them from the sun's glare, Lance and Chase babbled away uselessly while Hannah went between the two conversations. Charlie was silent. He gazed over little Johnson, who was pushing her eggs around on her plate, apparently having lost her appetite. Charlie knew she was good; he just hoped the stress or anxiety she was suffering from wouldn't get in the way. All she had to do was calm down and she'd be fine.

"You know, it's not that bad," Charlie said to her. Johnson looked up, intently listening for any advice. "Don't worry about a thing. Just go and have fun."

Johnson lowered her eyes back to her plate. Then she just barely whispered, "I don't want to disappoint you."

Charlie smiled and reached over and touched her arm to get her attention back. "You know what to do. You've practiced and you're good. That's why you're on this team. You were the best out of everybody. Now that means something." She smiled just a tiny bit. "Besides, I'm sure you'll do much better than those three did their first time." He motioned over to Oliver, David, and Hannah. "I swear, I need an insurance policy on them."

A little giggle. Charlie knew he'd done all he needed to do. She was relaxed.

Chase looked around the hall and noticed it was filling up. "Hey, Charlie, we going soon or what? I think the Slytherins have gone and changed."

Charlie motioned for them to head out, him leading the way of course. Oliver and David followed quickly, but Hannah stayed towards the back of the group where Johnson was trailing behind. Hannah put her arm around the girl's shoulders.

"Angelina, what's the matter?"

"They're all better than me," Angelina said softly.

"Well I'd assume Charlie and those guys are better because they're crazy about the sport…"

"I'm not talking about them," she said, motioning to her teammates. "The Slytherins. I saw them practicing once. And they're _really_ good. Like better than last year. I dunno what Zele had them do over summer, but they're… well it was amazing to watch them. And I'm worried I'm going to let Charlie down and he won't want me on the team anymore and…"

"Whoa! Slow down, one issue at a time!" Hannah said comfortingly. "First of all, like Charlie said, he picked you, didn't he? So you've got talent, and don't you dare deny it. Second of all, so what if Slytherins good? We're better. We always have been… except when Charlie or Oliver gets hit with a Bludger, then bad things happen… but that's not the point. The point is, is we _will_ beat them and you will be great, just like we know you will be. Okay?"

Angelina nodded and for the first time that morning gave a true, genuine smile.

"C'mon, we're going to be late," Hannah said, quickening their pace to catch up with the boys.

Once they reached the locker rooms, the girls headed off to their side to change into their robes. When they returned, they saw the guys stretched out on the benches, trying to relax, but it was obvious they were all very tense about the upcoming game. Hannah sat down next to Oliver and put her hand on his shoulder. He smirked at her, his eyes gleaming with excitement for the upcoming game. Poor Angelina stood in the corner, feeling sort of outcast from the group.

When Charlie exited his captain's office, the team sat up and paid attention to what he was about to say.

"All right, mates, here we are…"

"Again," Lance cut in.

Charlie backhanded him. "My last year. So let's start it off good. Oliver, if you get hit with another Bludger this game, I'm going to kill you!" Oliver shrugged innocently. "Angie, don't worry, okay? It won't be that bad."

"Yeah, you won't get hit by any Bludgers. That's Oliver's job," Chase said, winking at the youngest member.

"Why do Bludgers hate me?" Oliver mumbled to Hannah.

"So let's get out there," Charlie finished, picking up his broomstick and leading the way towards the pitch.

They could hear the cheering long before they reached the entrance to the pitch. Oliver and David grinned as they mounted their brooms and kicked off after Charlie. Hannah made sure Angelina was okay before chasing after the other two. Angelina, now feeling much calmer, trailed behind Hannah and followed her to the center of the field. Charlie and Terrance Higgs met above the rest of the players, glaring at each other. Below them, Chase and Lance were surveying the Slytherins on the opposite side. Right across from them were their Slytherin counterparts, Derrick and Bole. Both were big, menacing, and in Chase's opinion, stupid. Maybe because Bole was still cross-eyed from last year when Chase had directed a Bludger smack in the middle of Bole's giant forehead. Next to them were the three Chasers: Marcus Flint, Adrian Pucey, and Corbin Zele, the Captain. Lance could swear the Zele got bigger every time he saw him.

Now he understood a little why Angelina was so nervous; these guys had to be huge compared to a tiny second year. He glanced over at the young Chaser to see if she was nervous again, expecting to see wide eyes and trembling hands. Instead, her face was set and determined to win.

Madam Hooch was underneath the two teams, opening up the chest to release the balls. The second the trunk opened, the Bludgers shot into the air, and Oliver had to duck a little when one decided it wanted to take the route that passed through the area that Oliver's head had been. Hannah sighed and rolled her eyes at him, who shrugged innocently.

No one saw the Golden Snitch come out; once it had left its case, it had sped away instantaneously. Already, Charlie and Higgs were looking all around for any speck of gold. While the Seekers were preoccupied with finding the Snitch, Madam Hooch had picked up the Quaffle and had tucked it under her arm. She gave them a knowing meaningful stare before she tossed the ball up into the air.

Hannah immediately dove to avoid the chaos that was beginning as both teams made grabs for the Quaffle. David managed to get a hold of it and flew out of the rush, looking around for Hannah. The goal had been for her to get a head start on Bletchley, which was already working perfectly. David chucked the Quaffle hard and Hannah caught it while still maintaining the lead.

The first ten points of the game were scored in the first fifteen seconds.

The Slytherins did not take kindly to the Gryffindors tactics, and quickly went into sabotage mode, which involved removing one of the Chasers as usual. Chase noticed who their target was and quickly flew over to protect Angelina from getting crushed by both Bludgers that were coming from both sides. With his right hand, Chase pushed her down and smacked the Bludger coming in on the left with his bat. He then swiveled to the other side, tossed the bat to his right hand, and sent that Bludger directly back at Bole.

Oliver was doing exceptionally well at his end of the pitch. He'd saved five of the eight attempted goals from the Slytherins. The last one he was annoyed with himself, but more with Derrick and Pucey. Oliver had never been stooged until now, and even then it wasn't technically stooging. Derrick had flown way too close to Oliver, who had to pull his broom up to avoid colliding with the Beater. Pucey had then taken that opportunity to get the Quaffle through the center hoop.

As Oliver tried to forget the almost cheating that had taken place, he noticed a green blur headed in his direction. Oliver gripped his broomstick and faced his oncoming opponent. Marcus Flint smirked at Oliver as he feigned to the right. Oliver went along with it; he knew he was fast enough to stop the goal if Flint decided he would go left instead.

But he wasn't prepared for Flint to nearly charge him. Oliver had about half a second to realize what Flint was doing and then react to it.

And the first thing that came to mind was for him to fly into the Slytherin. Apparently Marcus had expected for Oliver to mimic his idea and quickly dove to avoid the possible collision. Oliver pulled his broom around and quickly cut off Flint's pass. Once he had the Quaffle, Hannah swung by to take it from him.

"Better luck next time, Flint," Oliver said over his shoulder as Flint returned to the middle of the pitch.

A few minutes later, thanks in large part to the Slytherins two against one tactics, the game was tied at sixty points to both teams. Hannah and David were both frustrated as time and time again they were forced out of their formations by either Bludgers or Slytherins themselves. Even once Hannah had to jerk out of the way when Charlie dove right in front of her when he'd spotted the Snitch. But one of the Bludgers, this time on its own accord, had put an end to that attempt of winning the game.

Angelina flew around the pitch and brushed by David. Just as she passed, he motioned with his right hand and held up four fingers. She nodded and continued on to the Gryffindor side where she gave the motion to Oliver and pointed to Hannah. After Oliver once again saved the Quaffle, he handed it to Hannah, who had already gotten the message from David, and she joined her two teammates halfway along the field. She took point, and was already observing Bole's approach. She swerved to the left and chucked the Quaffle to Angelina, who dodge around Bole and resumed Hannah's previous position. The figure eight formation continued until the reached the scoring area, when Hannah and David pulled out, leaving Angelina to score.

Hannah cheered mentally while the Gryffindor students did the verbal work. But she only had a second or two before she was completely unseated by a Bludger that had been directed from Bole.

Hannah had fallen off a broomstick plenty of times, but usually she'd never been more than ten feet off the ground. At nearly thirty feet, she knew things were going to end a little differently. She started to relax her body and prepared for impact, but then she felt someone grab her wrist, and then heard a pop as her shoulder dislocated.

"OWW!" she screamed.

"Sorry! Give me your other hand!"

She threw her left hand up above her head where her rescuer took it and released her right hand. The pain let up a bit. The person who'd grabbed her was now hauling her up onto the broomstick. As she was getting pulled up, she tried to get things back into focus.

Someone must've called timeout, because all the Gryffindors, including Oliver and Charlie, were coming over to see if she was alright. That was when she realized that a Slytherin had to have saved her, because she was seeing her entire team. She looked behind her seat and saw Marcus Flint holding her carefully by the shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked. She managed a nod before she was yanked off Marcus's broom and onto Oliver's.

"I'm fine," she answered before Oliver could even talk. "Just my shoulder. It's no big deal."

The Gryffindor team landed and Oliver sat Hannah down on the lawn. David squatted down next to her and carefully ran his hands over her hurt shoulder. There wasn't any pain when he touched it, but when he moved her arm, she yelped.

Charlie was standing a little further back, his arms crossed and his face unsure. Hannah noticed but didn't say anything. A second later, Charlie sat next to her and said, "You're gonna have to sit out."

"No! I'm fine!"

"Hannah, your shoulder is _dislocated_," David said firmly. "You can't play."

"Yes I can! Pop it back in!"

"No," Oliver said, pressing his hand on her left shoulder. Hannah turned and glared at him. "For once, you're going to listen. You aren't playing." He helped her stand up and walked her over to the sidelines. "Just stay here. Please?"

Hannah grumbled, "Fine," and sat down again.

Unfortunately, the game didn't go too well for Gryffindor after Charlie made her sit out. Now with a missing Chaser, David and Angelina were having a much harder time trying to score. That, and combined with Zele's secret desire to be a kamikaze and kept ramming into David, the Gryffindor Chasers kept losing control of the Quaffle, let alone having the chance to make a goal. Oliver also fell victim to Zele's tactics, resulting in more goals for Slytherin. Back on the ground, Hannah shook her head dejectedly. This was pathetic. Why didn't Charlie just let her play? They wouldn't be losing this badly if he would've just popped her shoulder back in.

Then she saw Charlie dive. Hannah jumped off the bench and started shouting, cheering with the rest of the Gryffindors. Higgs dived after him, but Charlie was already too far ahead; Gryffindor was going to catch it. It didn't matter that Slytherin had earned them a fifty point lead. In two seconds it wouldn't matter.

That was until Zele flew head first into Charlie, sending the Gryffindor Seeker spiraling out of control. Everyone other than the Slytherin House booed loudly. Charlie managed to regain control of his broom; he gave Zele the one finger salute while looking around for the Snitch again. He spotted it and dived again, but Higgs was too close. Charlie just barely reached his ankles before Higgs wrapped his fingers around the Snitch.

"Tha' was such a cheap shot," Oliver muttered later in the hospital ring.

He, David, and Charlie were all being checked out due to the massive bruising they had. It wasn't that bad; David had two broken ribs that Madam Pomfrey quickly fixed. As for Oliver and Charlie, they were alright. After all, they hadn't been smashed into a dozen or so times by Zele.

"I'm telling yeh, it's a miracle tha' Zele don' have a concussion or something," David complained as Hannah argued with Madam Pomfrey, who was trying to insist that Hannah spend the night in the hospital wing. By the sound of it, Hannah was winning. "I mean, Charlie's like a brick wall. OW!"

Madam Pomfrey had apparently given up on making Hannah stay and was now checking David's ribs. The nurse shook her head muttered to herself something about "Quidditch" and "stupidity."

Hannah got off her bed and crossed her arms. "I still can't believe Madam Hooch didn't call a foul," she said angrily.

Lance shrugged. "It wouldn't've helped. It was too late."

"It was still a cheap shot," David said before hissing angrily. The nurse had just prodded a sensitive rib.

Angelina was the only who hadn't spoken since the game had ended. She stood off, out of the circle of the team members. Chase had noticed and broke out of the circle to walk over to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile.

"What's up?"

"It's my–"

"No, it's not. Don't say that. Slytherin just has dirty tactics," Chase said. "You did great for your first game."

"We still lost," Angelina insisted.

Hannah overheard them talking. She turned around to face Angelina and said, "It's my fault. If I'd been paying attention, I wouldn't've gotten hit with the Bludger and then you wouldn't've been down a Chaser."

"Exactly," Chase said, patting Angelina's shoulder.

Charlie groaned as he twisted around to look at Angelina, his ribs screaming in protest. "And besides, Slytherin always plays dirty. Zele would've flown into me no matter what; it had nothing to do with you. You did great, Angelina."

Everyone else on the team nodded in agreement.

A half hour later, the team was trudging up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower, including David and Hannah. They were all still cranky about losing, but were hoping that maybe the House would be a little lively. After all, they had put up a good fight against the "enemy."

"Think your brothers snuck us some food?" Hannah asked.

"Knowing Fred and George… they might've snuck the whole sweetshop," Charlie said, still grimacing in pain.

"Why didn't you just stay at the hospital wing?" Hannah scolded.

David smirked and said, "Why didna yeh? Yeh had a dislocated shoulda."

"Yeh have two broken ribs!" Hannah snapped back.

"They're fixed," David argued, motioning at his side where the mentioned ribs were.

"Just give up David. We all have," Charlie commented.

They laughed and came up to the fifth floor landing, where Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey were talking quietly. The two Slytherins saw the group and stopped. Charlie, Lance, and Chase nodded at Marcus. David spared a glance and gave a very small smile. The boys and Angelina continued up the stairs, but Hannah and Oliver stopped.

Flint crossed his arms defensively out of habit. "What?"

Hannah smiled kindly at him. "Thanks. You saved me a few broken bones."

Flint relaxed and he returned the smile. "Oh that. No big deal."

"Well, thank you," Hannah said.

Oliver took Hannah by the elbow and pulled her towards the stairs to the rest of the team. About halfway up the stairs, Hannah looked back over her shoulder and smiled again at Flint and gave him a small wave. Oliver pretended not to notice and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to himself.

"Let's try not to need their help next time," he said.

Hannah scowled and slapped him in the chest. "You're one to talk!"

"Think Flint could extend the friendliness and spare me some broken bones?" David grumbled, still clearly nursing his grudge against Zele.

"Considering you're the one who started this whole thing with him, I doubt it," Hannah said. "Besides, maybe Flint just has some chivalry skills that you seem to lack."

"Wot?" Oliver asked, surprised. "We're chivalrous."

"You guys gang up on me and tickle me. That's not chivalrous!" Hannah argued.

And the two of them quickly climbed the steps to their tower, laughing and poking each other like they always did when they made fun of the other. When they got to the tower, the party was already kicking up. Danniell and Kaden greeted them at the entrance with butterbeer and sweets. They headed over a few feet away where Nanda and Raheem had claimed a few chairs.

"So…" Danniell started.

Hannah held up one threatening finger. "No one, especially Oliver, is allowed to bring up that Bludger accident. Got it?"

The boys laughed; they were too used to Hannah that they never took her threats seriously.

"I was actually going to bring up Oliver's issue with the Bludger at the beginning of the game," Danniell replied.

"Oh! Well that's perfectly acceptable," Hannah replied. Oliver pretended to look upset about being picked on, but Hannah poked him in the side and he was immediately smiling again. "You know I love you."

"Yeah," Oliver agreed. "I love you, too." Kaden laughed at them. Oliver looked over at where Kaden was sitting. "What?"

"Nothing," Kaden said jokingly. "You two. You make fun of each other one moment and the other you love each other again."

"I ignore it," Raheem said. "Seriously, Kaden? This surprises you? Where have you been the last three and a half years?" He and Danniell laughed and they both smacked Kaden in the head, who then proceeded to spill some of his butterbeer on his pants. This only made the group laugh even harder.

"And this is why you are my best friends," Hannah said as Kaden looked at the wet spot on his pants. "Because you guys are weird."

"Tell me about it," Nanda said, grinning.

* * *

And that's the end. So obviously, big difference since they lost now. No big deal really. After all, next match is Hufflepuff, and they're a pushover. :P

Anyways, please review because it makes me smile and happy and more motivated to write.


	12. Chapter 12

And here's my next chapter. Warning you now, it's not an extremely happy chapter. It's sort of sad what's going to happen but it's need for the plot. (Don't worry about Andrew, I'll give you that). But the next chapter will hopefully be better.

* * *

Chapter 12

The following morning, the whole of Gryffindor tower was late in waking up. The party celebrating their Quidditch victory had gone on well into the night, leaving everyone exhausted. So when Oliver woke up and went down to the common room, he was surprised to see David sitting at one of the round tables and reading from his notes.

"Uh… David, wot are yeh doin'?"

"Studying."

"And yeh ain't sleeping because…"

"Because unlike you and Derek, I'm a fifth year which means I have OWLs which means I need to study. More specifically, I need to study Potions and History of Magic," David said, not looking up from his paper.

"Hardest subjects?" Oliver asked, taking one of the seats next to David. He glanced at one open notebook and saw a long list of potions and antidotes.

"Try two tests tomorrow."

Oliver cringed at the thought and decided to leave David be. "I'll go back ta bed and leave yeh alone." He started to get up but then David put his notes down and motioned for him to sit with one finger. "Wot?"

"Quick question, and I swear I'm not going to give you hell as long as you're honest with me," David said. Oliver nodded for him to continue. "Do you like Hannah? I mean… do you fancy her?"

"Aye," Oliver responded immediately.

David nodded a little bit. "I figured. I just wanted to be sure. So what do you plan on doing?"

Oliver shrugged as an answer. Honestly, he had no clue how to let Hannah know that he liked her as more than a best friend sister person. "I dunno. Wot do yeh think I should do?"

David scratched the back of his head in thought, then ran his fingers through his hair a few times. "Well… I think you should just come out with it. Maybe not right _now_… but soon. After all… what's the worst that could happen?" he joked. Oliver smiled and laughed with him.

"Seriously though, I don't want to make an ass of myself," Oliver said, thinking in the back of his mind of different scenarios of how he would tell her.

David picked up his text book and sat it in his lap. "Oliver, it's a risk you'll need to take. You can't just sit by and hope someone will come along and make it happen. You have to do it. And if… telling her goes badly… so it's awkward for a few months. But you'll get over it. So just suck it up and do it." He smiled. "Before Kevin does."

"How long do you think I've got?"

"Um… I'd say about March or April. That gives you four or five months."

Oliver nodded and got up. "Okay. Sounds like enough time. Well… I'm gonna go back ta bed. Yeh have fun studying."

David glanced over his books and sighed. "Yeah. I'll have _tons_ of fun."

* * *

At lunch that day, once all of Gryffindor house had decided to wake up, nearly all of the school was in the Great Hall. Most of the Gryffindors were starving because they hadn't eaten breakfast, unlike the rest of the student body. So Oliver was rather annoyed when he was pulled away from his house table over to Ravenclaw's by Andrew. The rest of the Wood family was already sitting along both sides of the table.

"Wot's going on?" Oliver demanded. He didn't see Hannah anywhere. Did David really go and blab to everyone about what he'd just told him? But then Andrew was holding up a cotton swab.

"Say 'Ahhh!' and rub this against the inside of your cheek," Andrew instructed. He handed out a few more to some of the other cousins. Oliver did as he was told and handed it back. Andrew dropped it into a clear plastic tube with _Oliver_ written on it.

"Um… wot exactly are yeh doin'?"

"DNA matches," Andrew explained as he finished putting the swabs in their corresponding tubes. "Remember wot I told yeh on the train? Time to find a donor."

Oliver didn't say anything, he simply nodded. There was no complaining heard from anyone. It was family duty to protect and help each other, and they all understood that. Family was always first.

"How long will it take to find a match?" Derek asked.

Andrew was putting the tubes into a plastic bag. "A few days."

"And… what if none of us are matches?" Hunter asked.

"I hope I don't have ta worry about tha'," Andrew said firmly. He tied the bag to his owl's leg and sent it off. Then he sat down and pulled a plate of bacon in front of him. "Thanks for cooperating."

Oliver left the table and returned to Gryffindor's. He sat down next to Hannah, who was looking at him curiously.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Finding a match for Andrew," he explained. "Guess that means he needs surgery asap and –" He was cut off by KC landing on his plate and hitting Oliver in the head with his wings. He hopped around, looking for Kaden, who was walking to join their table. KC flew over to his owner and Kaden held out his arm for KC to perch on. He removed KC's letter and then sat down across the table. "Wot's that about?"

"Um… my dad," Kaden said, recognizing the handwriting. He slit open the envelope and read the note. He was very quiet as he read and reread the letter.

"Kaden, is everything okay?" Hannah asked.

Kaden didn't answer. Without grabbing anything to eat, he got up and left the Great Hall, still reading the parchment. Oliver and Hannah watched him leave and then looked at each other curiously.

"What do you think is wrong?" Hannah asked quietly.

Oliver shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Outside of the Great Hall, Kaden was walking hurriedly to the doors and stepped outside. He took his cell phone out of his pocket. He pressed the 3 button and put the phone to his ear. It rang twice and then his dad answered.

"Hi, Kaden," Richard Casmyn said.

"Hey, Dad," Kaden said. "I got your letter."

"I figured as much."

"How bad is it?"

His dad sighed on the phone and paused for a few moments. Kaden knew that was a bad sign; his dad never paused to think about what to say. "Dad, just tell me."

"It's bad," he said. Kaden ran a hand through his hair, trying to process what his dad was telling him. "They can take out a few of the tumors, but the liver tumor is too large. They also offered chemotherapy for her, to give her a few more months but she doesn't want to…"

"Make her," Kaden ordered.

"Kaden, you know how stubborn your mother is. She won't do something just because I tell her to," Richard Casmyn said.

"Then beg her to. Dad… we can't just sit here and do nothing!" Kaden said. He gripped the stone wall to steady himself. "Dad, we can't lose her." Again, his dad said nothing. They were both silent for a few moments. Then Kaden asked, "How long does she have left?"

"A year, maybe 18 months."

Kaden closed his eyes and rubbed them vigorously. He took a few deep breaths to calm down, but still his voice cracked when he said, "When can I come home?"

"Whenever you want to," Richard Casmyn said. Someone was talking in the background and his dad said a few words before talking to Kaden again. "Your mother wants to talk with you."

"Okay," Kaden said, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Kaden?"

"Hey, Mom." And then two tears slid out of his eyes. His voice cracked a little bit. "How are you feeling?"

Misaki Casmyn laughed as if nothing was wrong. "About as good as I can get."

Hearing her laughter made Kaden smile just a little bit. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, Kaden."

"Mom, you gotta let them take care of you," Kaden said, trying to sound stern. "They'll make you better."

"Kaden, I'm sorry. But you and I both know it's not going to do anything," she said quietly. Kaden wanted to scream with frustration. "Everything will be okay."

Kaden shook his head angrily. "No, Mom, it's not gonna be okay."

"Yes, it will," his mother said softly. "Don't fret. Everything will work itself out. Trust me." Kaden mumbled that he'd try to. "Good. Now we have to get going. I'll see you soon. I love you, Kaden. I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Mom," he said softly, wiping his eyes a little bit. He shut the phone and took a few more deep breaths, still rubbing his eyes. Then he turned around and walked back into the castle.

* * *

Danniell, Oliver, and David were sitting in the Gryffindor common room talking about Kaden's behavior over the last few days. They all agreed that something big was wrong, none of them really wanted to bring it up with him unless he said something first.

"Like, ever since Monday, he hasn't really done anythin', yeh know?" Oliver said. Danniell nodded in agreement and David blinked understandingly. "But wot could've happened?"

"Maybe his brain finally imploded from all of Snape's pop quizzes," Danniell mumbled, cringing at the thought of the latest one.

David stretched his arms and laughed. "Yeah, sure. Wot if instead yeh asked him?"

It was Danniell's turn to laugh. "We already tried that. He kinda mumbled at us and then walked away. That was about it, right Oliver?"

"Aye, 'bout all he's done," Oliver agreed.

Oliver and David sighed and rubbed their foreheads and then pinched the bridge of their noses at the same moment Hannah came down the girls' staircase. She saw the movement and then came over to their group.

"What's the matter?" she asked, leaning on the back of Oliver's chair.

Danniell said, "Kaden."

"Oh, you mean how weird he's been?" The boys nodded. "Why don't you just go ask him?"

"We tried that," Oliver said. "But he didn't say anything."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "You gave up too easy. I'll just go ask him." She started to walk away.

Oliver got out of his chair a little bit and grabbed her wrist. "No, Hannah. Don't do tha. Jus' leave him alone fer a while." He tugged her arm a little bit and she walked back to the group and sat on the arm of his chair.

"Well then what are we going to do?" Hannah asked. She glanced around the room as if hoping to see Kaden coming over, with his usual goofy smile and ready for trouble as usual.

Danniell shrugged. "Guess we could wait it out."

Hannah scoffed at the idea and crossed her arms. "And what? Just wait for the truth to burst out of him? Kaden's not just gonna come out with it."

"Well, maybe he jus' needs ta be left alone fer a while," Oliver suggested. He looked up at her and said, "Don't bother him 'bout it, okay? Yeh wouldna want people ta be botherin' yeh if something was wrong."

Hannah nodded. "Fine. But I still think we should talk with him."

She then got up and headed for the portrait hole. She started to take the familiar path down the stairs and walked out to the windy clock courtyard. Outside, she saw quite a few people, including Raheem and Nanda. Raheem had conjured up a small snowfall over by the bench that he and Nanda were sitting on. He soon stopped the spell when Nanda took a handful of the fresh snow and shoved it down the back of Raheem's sweater. While, Raheem jumped up and Nanda started to run away, Hannah saw Mitchell with Benicia off to the side in a casual conversation. There were other students as well, talking with their friends and playing like Nanda and Raheem were.

And that was when Hannah realized what was really wrong with Kaden's quietness. When even one of them was out of sync, the entire group acted differently. Instead of being each other's constant companions, they split off into pairs or even go solo.

Hannah sighed at this realization. It was similar to the Marauders. Everything was good for the longest time. Then Peter went weird and… well the rest was history. Granted, Hannah didn't believe any of her friends would commit that type of betrayal, but she wanted things to get back together soon.

So she decided to go to the Owlery and write Moony a letter, asking for some advice. She quickly made her way through the courtyard, giving a few waves to people calling her name. After she was across the bridge, she continued to her right for the Owlery and jogged up the stone steps leading to the door. She pushed the wooden door open and made her way up to the second floor where Diana usually stayed during the day. But she stopped halfway when she saw Kaden leaning against the wall, absentmindedly petting KC. She made her footsteps loud enough so Kaden would know she was there, but he didn't move or anything. He just continued to stand there.

After a minute, Hannah said quietly, "Kaden?"

"Yeah?"

She walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. Kaden looked over at her and tried to smile. Both he and she knew it wasn't genuine, and it quickly fell. He went back to looking at the sky.

Another silent minute passed between them before he said, "My mom's sick."

"What does she have?"

He sighed heavily before saying, "Cancer."

"Well… they have drugs to take care of her…" Hannah said, but she already knew what he was about to say.

"It's terminal."

And Hannah did the only thing she could think of. She wrapped her arms around Kaden and hugged him tightly. She hugged him just as Mrs. Wood had held her after her parents had been killed. Kaden was used to Hannah's hugs, but he'd never gotten one like this. Everything that he wanted to feel, the comfort he wanted words to give him, was right there. It took him a moment to adjust to the feeling, but then he pulled her closer and hugged her back.

They stood that way for a while, neither of them pulling away or saying a word.

* * *

So it was a little sad (at least I think so) but the next chapters will be happier. Kaden's gonna take a few chapters to get back to normal, but everything else is going to be less serious. I promise. Now please review!


	13. Chapter 13

Hey, sorry it's taken forever (again) to update, but getting used to college took a while. Well here's the next chapter. Enjoy and review please.

* * *

Chapter 13

Terah and Janelle were sitting in the Ravenclaw common room, working on a Charms essay when Erin Stone and Benicia Teresini came into the common room, giggling about something. Terah paid them little attention until she heard Mitchell's name brought up.

"Oh my god, so you're going on another date with him? Benicia, you're soooo lucky! Mitchell's the hottest guy in all of Ravenclaw!" Erin squealed, clapping her hands together.

Terah and Janelle looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Janelle then put two of her fingers to her forehead and raised and lowered her thumb like she was shooting herself as the other two girls were walking past. Terah covered her ears with her hands to block out Erin and Benicia's shrill voices. Once they had shut the door to their dormitory, Terah removed her hands.

"So what was that you and Veronica were saying about Mitchell liking me?" she asked.

Janelle shrugged uneasily. "I don't know! It seemed like it. But now he keeps spending time with Benicia… Whatever, boys are retarded. And you're too pretty for Mitchell Wood. You know, Carl Dwight's not too bad looking…"

Terah laughed at this suggestion. "Janelle, Carl Dwight is three years older than you."

"A girl can dream!" Janelle snipped at her, crossing her arms defensively. Then a smile crept on her face. "Well, what about Jacob Fink?"

"The day that boy pulls his head out from under girls' skirts is the day I go and confess my love to Kaden Casmyn," Terah replied.

"There's nothing wrong with that boy either," Janelle started to comment before Terah had gotten up and was shaking her shoulders. "Okay! Okay! I'll shut up about boys!"

"Thank you!" Terah said. She looked around the common room and saw Andrew Wood sitting by the fire reading one of his text books. She turned back to Janelle. "Hey, I'm gonna go talk with Andrew for a few minutes. I'll be back. You can go on daydreaming about Carl Dwight."

She got up and crossed over to the other side of the common room and sat down across from him. Andrew looked up from his book, then closed his book and pushed it onto the floor.

"Hey, Tee," he said.

Terah smiled at him. "Hey, Andrew. So I heard that you need surgery. Did you find a match yet?"

Andrew grinned. "Well if I tol' yeh that, there'd be no fun when I git ta tell."

"Aw, c'mon, I promise I won't tell."

"Well, see here's the thing. I know who yer other half is an' I don' trust her not ta tell. 'Sides, I want ta see their reaction when I tell them they're the one who gits ta save me arse," he said casually. Terah rested her head against her hand. Everything was a game for these boys, and she was curious as to when they would ever grow up. "However, I'll give yeh a hint. It ain't either of me sisters."

Terah sighed and got up. "Well, I'm not going to fight you to get you to tell me. But I'm glad you at least have a match."

Andrew nodded. "I'm happy 'bout it myself." As she was leaving, he said, "Hey, Tee, c'mere." She came back and stood by the chair she'd just left. "Would yeh like ta come home ta me house fer Christmas?"

Terah laughed a little bit. "What… are you asking me out?"

"Don't flatter yerself," he teased. He motioned for her to sit down, which she did. "I suppose yeh and Hannah could use a few weeks to spend time together," he whispered. "I'll just arrange it so Ryeanne wants to hang out with you or something like that."

"Thank you, Andrew. So much," Terah said. "I'd hug you, but I don't know if you'd like that."

Andrew held up his hands. "I'm good. Well, I got ta git goin' an' find Kevin an' settle a debt with him." He got up and picked up his book. "See yeh around, Tee."

* * *

Oliver yawned as he sat in his Potions class. He rested his chin in his hand as Snape lectured on antidotes and how to identify poisons, both before and after consumption. Next to him, Raheem had completely passed out, his hand still holding the quill he'd been using to write notes. Every few moments his hand twitched as if he was trying to still pay attention. Danniell kept rubbing his bloodshot eyes wile attempting to keep up with Snape.

_"Hmmm… maybe we should've gone to bed before… oh… 4:30 this morning…"_ Oliver thought to himself as he looked down at his notes. _"Why am I even bothering?!"_ He thought exasperatedly. His notes were complete gibberish, and he wasn't even sure if any of the words he'd written were English. As he glanced up the page, he saw that at one point his notes looked like they were Japanese markings. But he doubted that Kaden would be able to decipher it on his best day.

At that point, Oliver gave up, tossed his quill to the side, put his head down on the desk, and fell asleep.

Snape didn't fail to notice Oliver's lack of attention. As he continued lecturing, he slowly made his way to Oliver's seat. He then picked up a text book and smacked Oliver in the head with it.

Oliver moaned and gripped his head as he slowly picked his head up. "Eh… ow… wot'd I do wrong?"

"Detention."

"Of course."

"Thursday night, my office, 6:30 sharp," Snape said, walking away.

Oliver muttered in Gaelic for a few seconds. Hannah thought it safe to assume they were quite a few colorful swear words. She put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed it. Oliver looked over at her and smiled a bit before putting his chin in his hands and facing the blackboard.

After class let out, Nanda and Danniell were hurriedly running in order to get to Arithmancy on time, which was on the other side of the castle. Kaden was off to meet a potions tutor, and Raheem decided after this class that he'd go along with him.

"I better go, too," Oliver said, about to follow the other two. But Hannah grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. "Wot?"

"You need sleep," she interjected.

"Hannah, it's the middle o' the day! I ain't gonna get any sleep even if I tried!" he complained as Hannah dragged him towards Gryffindor Tower. "An' we got class in three hours!"

"We have time for a half hour nap," Hannah said. She gave the password and led the way to Oliver's dorm room. She threw her bag on the floor and jumped in his bed. Oliver rolled his eyes and dropped his books.

"Where am I gonna sleep?" Hannah patted the space next to her. Oliver laughed. "Please, Hannah, we ain't three no more."

"You're kicking me out of your bed?" she asked, pouting.

Oliver tried to retain his ground, but he knew once her bottom lip was out it was all over. He crossed his arms, then quickly threw his hands in the air in defeat. "Fine. Make room." He pulled his pulled tie off and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving him in a wife beater. He lay down and pulled the blankets up to his shoulders. "Night, Banni."

"Night, Oliwa," she murmured, cuddling into his chest. Oliver smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "That's better."

"Yeah. Now quiet. Sleeping time."

He closed his eyes and within a few minutes he was sound asleep. Hannah reached over to the side table and reset his alarm before laying her head on his shoulder. Subconsciously, Oliver wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. Hannah smiled a little before falling asleep as well.

An hour later, the alarm was going off. Oliver grumbled and rolled over, stuffing his head under the pillow. Hannah sat up and grabbed for the alarm clock, fumbling with it a little bit. She finally managed to shut it off and placed it back on the table. She turned to her side and shook Oliver's shoulder.

"No!" Oliver groaned, shaking her off. Hannah smiled and shook harder. "Go away."

"Wake up, Oliwa," she murmured, lifting up the pillow. She saw Oliver's eyes open just a bit. Once he recognized her, he closed them and shoved the pillow in her face.

"No. Sleeping."

"I thought you said you weren't tired."

"I lied."

"Are you gonna get up?"

"Probably not."

Hannah sighed and got out of bed. Oliver groaned again and rolled onto his back; he was not getting out of bed any time soon. She shook her head in disbelief before grabbing the pillow from under Oliver's head. Oliver made an indistinguishable noise but didn't move.

"Oliver, get up!" she ordered. But Oliver had once again fallen asleep. Hannah scowled. "Seriously?!" Then she smacked him with the pillow. Olive moaned and curled onto his side. "Wake up!" She hit him again.

The door to the dorm opened and Danniell walked in. "Er… why are you attacking Oliver?"

"Because he needs to wake up," Hannah said, hitting Oliver again.

"So you're going to beat him with… a pillow…"

"Clearly that's my choice this time."

Danniell shrugged and muttered, "It could be worse."

Oliver came to with the fifth hit. He grabbed the pillow and yanked it away from her. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her close to his face. "Wot part o' I'm sleepin' do yeh no' git?" Hannah didn't answer and instead stuck her tongue out. Oliver reached up and pinched her tongue between his fingers. "Wot was tha'?"

"AAKKE UUTTHH!!"

"I'm sorry. I don' speak moron."

Hannah pulled away from him. "C'mon, Oliver. Wake up!"

"Fine," he muttered and stood up. "Yeh coulda jus' asked me nicely." He then hugged her tightly around the waist and lifted her up. "I don' like it when ya yell a' me."

"I tried to be nice before," she muffled into his shoulder, poking him in the back. "You wouldn't listen to me!"

He put her back down. "Yeah, yeah. Danniell, did she ask nicely?"

Danniell looked up from his trunk that he'd been rummaging through. "Uh… don't pull me into your fights." He quickly stood up and left so as to make a point.

Hannah smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Just admit I'm right and I'll let it drop."

"I ain't never gonna admit that," Oliver said, pulling on his shirt. He grabbed his bag and threw the strap over his shoulder. "Well, are we goin'?"

"Fine, I'm coming," she said, getting her bag as well. The two of them headed to the door and Oliver put his arm over her shoulders as they went down the stairs. "But you're gonna admit that I'm right one day."

"No, I ain't," he said, picking his foot up and tapping her on the butt with his heel.

"Why do you do that?!"

"Because I can."

Hannah sighed and continued walking. "You know, some days you are a HUGE pain in the ass." She crossed her arms and grumbled, "Quite literally."

* * *

So that's the chapter. Like it? Review it! Please guys?


	14. Chapter 14

And I have returned from my hiatus! Oh my gosh everyone I'm so sorry that it's taken me forever to even update. College is really difficult and ideas haven't been popping up in my head as easily as they used too. Possibly because I'm so busy cramming random information about how the body works into my head. Well anyways here is my belated Christmas/Hannakuh/Kwanza present to all of you.

* * *

Chapter 14

There was only a few days left in the term, and the fourth years had just finished Herbology class. The greenhouses had been freezing and everyone was shivering as they left, as well as picking dirt out from under their fingernails. Oliver and Kaden led the group down the corridor and through a secret passage that led to the grand staircase. Oliver looked back and saw that Hannah was still very cold; he slowed down and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Hannah smiled and leaned into his side.

"Thanks," she muttered.

Oliver grinned and kissed the top of her head. "No problem."

Kaden had stopped and was looking around for where Oliver had disappeared to. He spotted Oliver a few steps down the stairs and noticed the two walking together. He elbowed Raheem in the side and pointed over his shoulder.

"I thought he didn't like her!" Kaden muttered with a smirk on his face.

Raheem suppressed a laugh as they continued up the stairs.

Danniell was still fussing about the fact that there was so much homework being assigned right before Christmas break. Nanda, however, was not being very sympathetic.

"If you had done some of your essays this weekend instead of playing Quidditch with Oliver, you'd be less busy," Nanda scolded.

"Yeah, because homework is just _so_ much more fun!" Danniell replied sarcastically. He jumped over one of the trick steps and turned to Oliver. "And I think our game went very well. And you got to practice."

"But what's more important? School or Quidditch?" Nanda asked, crossing her arms.

"Quidditch," said everyone else.

Nanda mumbled something that sounded like, "Why do I even try?"

The group reached the Gryffindor Common room and sat down around the last available table. Danniell reluctantly pulled out his Potions essay and set to work on it. Kaden began on his own homework, but after a few minutes he looked up to see Oliver looking over at Hannah. After a moment, Oliver noticed Kaden's gaze and he quickly returned to his homework.

Hannah, who had been working on her Divination homework and had been completely oblivious to Oliver, sighed in frustration and slammed her book shut.

"This is so pointless!" she grumbled.

"Tell me about it," Oliver agreed. "I thought Diviniation was stupid to start with. Then we moved onto Apantomancy and I just gave up!"

Kaden laughed along with Oliver. "Yeah, I never realized how walking by the neighbor's cat was _so_ life changing. Doesn't stop me from wanting to kick it every time I see it."

"Kaden, you are a terrible person," Nanda scolded from across the table. She threw a quill at him in frustration. Raheem patted her on the shoulder. "Animal hater! If you ever kick Kitty it will be the last thing you do."

Kaden's rolled his blue eyes and pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Remind me why you named your cat Kitty again?"

"Some things are best left unasked," Raheem said softly.

Nanda, who hadn't heard Raheem, asked, "Well what else was I supposed to name her?"

"Something besides 'Kitty'," Kaden explained.

"Please stop," Raheem said exasperatedly.

"Animal hater!"

"Freaking PETA member!"

"How come I can hear me?" Raheem asked. However once again, it seemed like he was heard by no one but himself. Nanda and Kaden continued to argue over pet names for a good five minutes before Raheem spoke up and said, "Please stop fighting! This is pointless. If you're going to fight about something, make it something important."

"Oh, like Quidditch?" Nanda asked mockingly.

Raheem shrugged in response and tried very hard not to smirk at her. Nanda saw his muscles twitching and knew what he was thinking.

"Well I don't care about Quidditch but do I tell you to shut up when you four boys go off about it?" she asked.

"Um, actually Nanda, yeh kinda do. A lot o' the time," Oliver said innocently.

Hannah covered his mouth with her hand. "It's best if you stay out of this," she whispered in his ear. He raised one of his eyebrows as if to ask her why. Hannah simply blinked at him. "Please?"

There was a loud thud as Kaden thumped his fist against the table. "I quit. Who wants to go play Quidditch with me?" he asked as he stood up.

He threw all his things into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Without waiting for anyone's say, he headed up the spiral staircase to his dorm, returning a minute later with his broomstick. The boys followed suit, leaving Nanda and Hannah alone at the table with their homework. The four friends marched down the stairs, knowing very well Nanda was going to tell them off later for not doing their homework. When Raheem made a point of this, Kaden just scoffed.

"Who cares?" he asked as they were greeted with the chilly December air. "She'll nag at us anyways. We might as well give her a legit reason." He turned to face Oliver. "Besides, I wanted to talk with you about something. And since we're all good friends, and we're not all blind, I think we should talk about it now."

Oliver raised an eyebrow at him. "Wot _are_ yeh goin' on about?"

Kaden didn't waste any time playing dumb. "Let's see, the brunette upstairs that you can't ever stop staring at? Would you just grow a pair and ask her out?"

"Wot? Hannah?"

"No, I'm talking about the other girl that you've known since the only thing you could do was shit in your diaper. Of course Hannah!"

Kaden never did learn what tact was.

"Hey, last time I checked yeh wasna in control of me own life! I'll do wot I goddamn please about the situation and…"

"Oh, it's a situation now, is it?" Danniell asked. He bonked Oliver on the top of his head with the handle of the broom. "Look, can you just stop being oblivious? It's hard enough when just one person is, but both people?"

"Wot do yeh mean 'oblivious?'" Oliver asked defensively.

Danniell sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oliver, half the school sees it. All of your cousins see it. The only person who doesn't (and it's because she spends too much time with Nanda) is Hannah! Just ask her out so that everything can be normal."

"But wot if she doesn't want to and everything is… weird?"

Kaden stepped forward again. "Oliver, if you don't do it, I'm sure Kevin will happily do the honors. You have all Christmas to figure out how you're going to ask her. Now if you please, I came out here to play Quidditch."

And without another word on the matter, Kaden turned on his heel and led the way through the six inches of fresh snow towards the pitch.

The morning of the last day of term was very hectic in the Gryffindor common room. Every member of the house was dashing about, either finding lost items that they needed to take home or trying to find friends in order to give them their Christmas presents.

"Of course, Nanda would be all packed up and ready to go," Raheem grumbled to Kaden as he glanced over his shoulder; Nanda was sitting on her trunk and contently petting her cat.

"You expected any different?" Kaden laughed, nudging Raheem in the ribs.

Oliver and David appeared at the base of the stairs, levitating their trunks to avoid the hassle of carrying them.

"Hi, Kaden. Raheem," David said, nodding at them. Kaden grinned back; David was definitely in on it. David turned back to his cousin. "Seen Hannah?"

"No," Oliver said. "She be'ter hurry up though."

The portrait opened and Hannah stepped in at just that moment. She walked over to the guys. "Did you know that Ryeanne invited Terah to come over for Christmas break?"

David nodded but Oliver shook his head. Kaden and Raheem seemed uninterested. Neither of them knew Terah well enough. Oliver hugged her, knowing that she was ready to jump and scream. He was glad that Terah was coming over; it made him content to see her so happy.

"Tha's great, but can we git goin'? Da' said he'd be a' the Great Hall in ten minutes," Oliver said, picking up his trunk.

"Wait! I need to say goodbye to Nanda!" Hannah yelled, running over to her best friend. Nanda jumped up and hugged Hannah tightly. "I'm gonna miss you soooo much!"

"I'm gonna miss you, too!" Nanda squealed back.

The boys were watching, all with very confused expressions. Finally, Raheem said, "Girls, you're only going to be gone from each other for three weeks."

"It's so long!" Hannah and Nanda yelled in unison.

Oliver checked his watch. "Eight minutes, Hannah."

"Don't rush me!" Hannah hollered at him.

David chucked. "Just like a married couple."

"Shut up!" Oliver hissed, jabbing his cousin in the side with his elbow. Kaden and Raheem snickered quietly. "You too!"

Hannah and Nanda had let go of each other. Hannah bounced back over to the boys, Nanda following behind her. "Okay, let's go, Oliver. Bye, Kaden. Bye, Raheem."

"Wow, Nanda gets a three minute hug and we get a 'Bye'. I feel so loved," Kaden said, pretending to be sulky. Hannah stuck her tongue at him. Kaden responded by pulling on his ears and puffing out his cheeks. Then Raheem smacked him in the back of the head.

"You look stupid enough. Don't make it worse," he instructed. "Bye, Hannah."

"Bye!" Hannah yelled as the three of them walked back out the portrait hole. They reached the stairs and looked down at the hundreds of steps that they were expected to walk down with their heavy trunks. Hannah glanced over at David and could tell that he was thinking what she was thinking. "Can I practice?"

"I don't really want all my clothes exploding on the bottom floor," David said. Hannah imagined for a second what it would look like if she did drop his trunk. "Let's do this using the safer method."

"But David! How am I ever going to get good at my magic if I don't practice?" Hannah whined as David took out his wand.

"By practicing with your own stuff for once," David muttered to himself.

Oliver took out his wand too. Hannah glared at him. "What?" Oliver asked. "Look, if yeh want ta levitate yours with yer magic stuffy thing, go ahead. I ain't stoppin' yeh."

Hannah sighed and looked down at her trunk. She paused as she thought of exactly how she should get it done. She'd been practicing the last few weeks, but it'd been mostly quills, parchment, and the like. Nothing terribly heavy. This was going to take a lot more effort.

For a back up plan, Hannah had her wand at the ready just in case. Then, thinking very hard on what she wanted, she waved her hand at the trunk, flicking her wrist up just as if she was performing the charm with her wand. The trunk trembled a little, then slowly, it rose off the ground until it levitated at about knee height. Hannah smiled at her work, and carefully guided the trunk down the stairs after Oliver and David. After two flights, Hannah finally felt like she had a handle on her trunk. She levitated it closer to Oliver's trunk and just tapped the corner of the trunk. Oliver turned around to look at her.

"Wot are yeh doin'?" he demanded.

"Nuuuh-thing," she replied, smirking at him.

David turned around as well. "Please. Could we maybe please just not fight until we get home?"

"Okay, fine," Hannah grumbled.

Oliver shoved David in the arm jokingly as they continued their way down to the main entrance. "Why do yeh always havta ruin the fun?"

* * *

And voila! The end of the chapter. Next chapter... CHRISTMAS! So yes, this will have an update in the very near future. I promise!


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone! Long time no see. I'm SO sorry that I didn't update like I promised. College really is insane, and whenever I do have freetime I usually use it to catch up on my sleep so my fanfiction has kind of fallen off on the wayside. But I did find it again and I will try my best to work on future chapters during my (extremely limited) free time. I'm not on any hiatus, so don't worry. It just takes time for me to get my ideas into actual sentences and then connect them all... and when I'm trying to fit in pharmacology and medicinal chemistry there's not a whole ton of space left over for my idea space. But I'm getting better at balancing it.

And now that my long introduction is over, here is the long awaited chapter that I have been so rudely depriving you all of for the last six months...

* * *

Chapter 15

"It's Christmas!"

"It's Christmas!"

"Santa came!"

"Santa came!"

"Tyler, stop copying me!"

"Nikki, stop copying me!"

Oliver grunted into his pillow as two sets of feet jumped on his back, shoulders, and around his head. He dared to take a peek and saw his sister's smiling face only inches from his own. Her brown eyes were gleaming brightly, clearly anticipating opening her Christmas presents.

"Mummy says we can't start without you," she explained.

Tyler was still jumping on Oliver's back, shrieking "Up, up, up!" at the top of his lungs.

"She told us to come wake you up," Nikki continued.

Oliver groaned in annoyance. _"Of course she did,"_ he thought to himself. He rolled over onto his back, accidentally throwing his brother off balance. Tyler almost tumbled to the floor, but Oliver caught him at the last second. He sat his brother upright on his lap.

"Why do yeh do this ta me every year?" he asked.

"Because yer always the las' one up."

Oliver looked up to see Hannah and Terah standing in the doorway. The two of them were so interesting together. So similar, yet different at the same time. Oliver wondered how no one was able to make any connection, but as they spent such little time together at school, hardly anyone saw it. The two had been inseparable since the first day of break, always sitting by each other at meals and even sharing Hannah's bed.

Hannah was a completely different person with Terah around. She just seemed to smile more, her eyes sparkled, and her overall attitude was much brighter. Even the other day when Kevin had accidentally on purpose knocked her down, she didn't punch him in the shoulder when she got up. She just smiled and rolled her eyes and went off to go hang out with Terah.

"You snore," Terah said plainly. "You woke me up last night."  
"Shut up, no I didn't," Oliver said, getting out of bed. He went to his closet and started looking for a shirt. "Do yeh mind? I'm gonna be naked soon and I'd prefer some privacy."

"Come on, Terah, let's get going," Hannah said. She turned to the two younger children who were still jumping on Oliver's bed. "Nikki, Ty, let's go get some cookies."

"Cookies!" they yelled and ran out of the room

Hannah laughed as she closed the door. She motioned for Terah to follow her downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, they saw Nikki grab the last cookie on the plate set out for Santa. She then hurried to the living room, plopping down onto the floor next to the tree. Tyler was sitting on his father's lap, munching away at his cookie. Hannah and Terah sat on the brown leather couch against the wall opposite of the tree. Mrs. Wood looked up from the book she'd been reading and glanced back at the stairs.

"Is he coming soon?"

"I'd give it like five minutes," Hannah said.

Nikki huffed. "Can't we start without him? I bet Santa only brought him coal anyway."

Mrs. Wood shook her head, trying to suppress a laugh. "No, Nikki, we wait for the whole family. Including Oliver."

"OLIVER!" Nikki shouted at the top of her lungs.

They heard pounding as Oliver ran down the stairs, jumping the last two steps and landing with a thud in the hallway. He looked half awake; his eyes still had the gunk in them from sleeping. His hair was plastered to one side of his head, and Hannah hoped he'd at least gargled some mouthwash before coming downstairs. His jeans were wrinkled, probably pulled out of the hamper, and he'd given up on getting a shirt on and instead was wearing the wife beater he'd slept in.

"Okay, he's here, can we start?" Nikki asked, her eyes big and pleading.

"But he's not even conscious," Terah murmured to Hannah.

Hannah shook her head. "It's good enough for his parents."

Once Mr. Wood had given the OK, Nikki was yanking presents from under the tree and handing them around to their recipients. Each of the children, Terah included, had a respectable pile before each of them. Terah, who had only been expecting a handful of presents, was pleasantly surprised that Mr. and Mrs. Wood were able to have bought her the same amount of presents as the rest of the children. She smiled appreciatively at Mrs. Wood before turning her eyes to Tyler who had started opening his first present. After Tyler, Nikki opened one of hers, then Joe, then Terah, then Hannah, and finally Oliver. They repeated this order until every last present had been unwrapped.

Immediately after the presents were done, Tyler and Nikki were playing on the carpet with their newest toys. Joe had gotten his first full size broom and had convinced Oliver to go outside and practice tossing the Quaffle back and forth. This left Hannah and Terah to try on their new clothes in their bedroom.

"I can't believe Andrea got me so much," Terah said as she pulled her new purple cashmere sweater over her head. She twirled in front of the full length mirror to see herself from every angle.

Hannah, who was already bundled up in her blue sweater, sat on the bed cross legged while she watched Terah continually change her outfit. "Maybe you should spend Christmas with us more often," she said, rubbing the sleeve against her cheek to feel the softness. "Andrea loves buying clothes for me. Haven't you noticed my closet?"

"Yeah, I have. You never wear the same thing twice," Terah joked as she tugged the sweater off and carefully folded it.

"So maybe you can get her to divert some of her shopping attention from me," Hannah said. She tossed Terah a light brown skirt. "You should wear that with the sweater for dinner tonight."

Terah laid out the skirt and the sweater to see how they looked together. "Yeah, that's pretty. So dinner tonight, is it just us or all of the relatives?"

Hannah opened a chocolate bar that she had gotten in her stocking. "Tonight it's just Oliver's family. Tomorrow we have the whole family dinner." Taking a bite of the chocolate, she lay down on the bed and stretched out. She turned her head to look at Terah who had put another outfit on. "You know, you could just date Mitchell and then you could be here all the time."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you," Terah said, turning sideways in the mirror to look at her profile.

Hannah cocked up an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You're giving me advice about a boy when you can't even notice that Oliver likes you," Terah said, smiling. Hannah's mouth dropped open. Terah noticed and giggled. "Oh come on, Hannah, it's so obvious. Everyone can see it."

"Well maybe I don't like Oliver," Hannah grumbled unconvincingly.

Terah rolled her eyes. "Stop pretending like you don't. I know these things. Now just go downstairs and tell him that you like him!"

"I can't just do that!" Hannah objected. "And keep your voice down. What if Oliver hears?"

"Then he'll finally do something!" Terah explained. She left the mirror and went and sat on the edge of the bed. While she played with Hannah's hair, she said, "Look, I just want you to be happy. And I know you and Oliver would be great together. Just go do it."

Hannah scowled at her, scrunching her forehead into a bunch of lines. "And if you're wrong?"

"Have I ever been wrong?" Terah asked. Hannah shook her head in reply. "Exactly. Now please, just trust me on this? I know Oliver likes you."

"How do you know?"

Terah sighed as she ran her fingers through Hannah's hair. "Because he looks at you the way Dad used to look at Mum."

Hannah couldn't think of anything to say in reply so she took another bite of her chocolate bar and chewed it while Terah started to braid her hair. The twins were silent for a moment as Hannah tried to sort out her thoughts and Terah waited for her to say something. Trying to put it off as long as possible, Hannah continued to eat her candy bar until it was gone. She grumbled, tossed the wrapper in the trash, and finally said, "How am I supposed to tell him?"

"You could start with, 'Hey, Oliver, can we talk?' And then you go from there," Terah said simply. Her twin huffed angrily and scrunched up her nose. "Or you could say, 'Hey, I like you, you like me, let's go out.'"

"How about you give me something that's not in the two extremes?" Hannah said.

Terah giggled and got up off the bed. "Well, that's all I got for you."

Hannah scowled at her. "You are the worst sister ever."

"Tha's no' very nice."

Hannah and Terah turned their heads to the door. Oliver was leaning against it, his hair windswept and his cheeks and nose still pink from the cold.

"What are you doing inside? I thought you and Joe would be out all day," Hannah said, rolling onto her stomach. She propped herself up on her elbows and grinned at him. "Or are you actually tired of Quidditch?"

"Shu' up," Oliver said, walking into her room and collapsing onto the bed.

"Oliver! You're on my side of the bed!"

"Yeh always hog me side when yeh sleep in my room!"

"I do not!"

"Aye, yeh do! An' yeh kick me 'n yer sleep, too!"

"Well if yeh wasna on me side tha' wouldna be a problem!"

Terah rolled her eyes at the two of them. "Hey, you two love birds. Quit flirting with each other and shut up."

"We aren't flirting!" they yelled simultaneously, both blushing bright red.

"Of course you're not," Terah said calmly. She sat down on the edge of the bed as well. "Can we go do something that doesn't involve you two yelling at each other?"

Oliver shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Er… we could wotch a movie until dinner," he offered.

Hannah nodded and jumped off the bed. "Okay let's go. Come on," she said, grabbing Terah's hand and yanking her towards the door. "Oliver, go take a shower first. You're stinky." She pulled Terah downstairs and to the family room. She put in a movie and sat down on the couch with Terah, who was smiling knowingly. "What?"

"Will you just say something to him? You both like each other," Terah said.

Hannah glanced towards the stairs to make sure Oliver was still upstairs. "No, he doesn't. He yelled that he wasn't flirting with me."

"You yelled the same thing," Terah pointed out.

Hannah couldn't think of a retort and instead watched the opening credits to the movie. A few minutes later, just as the movie was truly beginning, Oliver appeared. He flopped down into the overstuffed chair and put his feet up on the ottoman.

"Wot're we watching?" he asked

"I dunno. Some scamming movie with a casino?" Hannah guessed.

"Yeh picked the movie! Did yeh no' even read the cover?"

"Children!" Terah scolded. Oliver and Hannah glanced over at her; one of Oliver's eyebrows and cocked up towards his hairline. "Knock it off. The movie's on."

Hannah laughed quietly. "Sure, Mum. Whatever you say."

An hour into the movie, Hannah's stomach rumbled quietly. She ignored it and put a pillow in her lap to quiet any further noises. However, her stomach seemed to have a mind of its own and a few minutes later her stomach growled again, louder this time. Oliver heard and chuckled quietly but pretended he hadn't heard it. But Terah jerked her head to look at the window.

"Was that thunder?" she asked innocently.

Oliver burst out laughing and fell out of his chair. "Oh my God! Jesus, Hannah, go feed the beast!"

"Don't make fun of me," Hannah said, pretending to pout. But Oliver was still in hysterics; he was on his back and hugging his sides as he tried to stifle his laughs. Terah giggled a little too. Hannah frowned. "It's not funny that my stomach is a drama queen."

"Is… that… thunder!" Oliver chocked out between gasps.

Hannah sighed and got off the couch. She headed towards the kitchen, planning on following Oliver's advice to "feed the beast."

In the kitchen, Mrs. Wood was busy at work making dinner. Hannah pulled out a bag of chips and jumped up onto the counter. Mrs. Wood frowned disapprovingly at the snack food.

"You know that dinner is in an hour and a half," she chided gently.

Hannah grabbed three chips and shoved them into her mouth. "Terah thought that my stomach was thunder. I promise I won't eat a ton."

Mrs. Wood pursed her lips for a moment before she decided to let it slide. She seemed too busy with making sure the sauce for the turkey was the right consistency to scold Hannah about snacking before dinner. As she turned her back on Hannah to pay attention to the stove, Hannah debated whether or not she should ask Mrs. Wood the question that had been on her mind for the last few weeks. She bit her lip and kicked her legs absentmindedly, still thinking. Mrs. Wood noticed this out of the corner of her eye, turned around and stood in front of Hannah.

"Alright, out with it. What's your question," Mrs. Wood asked.

Hannah tucked her hair behind her ear, took a deep breath, and asked, "If Oliver and I ever got in a big fight, would you kick me out?"

"What are you and Oliver fighting about?" Mrs. Wood asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

Hannah shook her head. "No, we're not fighting. But if we ever did."

Mrs. Wood laughed with relief. "Oh, okay. I was worried for a moment." She put her hand on Hannah's knee. "Sweetheart, Mr. Wood and I would never kick you out. Ever. Not even if you burned down the whole house. This is your home, and you will be welcome to come back here for the rest of your life."

"But if Oliver and I fought…"

"Brothers and sisters fight all the time! Have you not been over Andrew or Derek's house in the past year?" Mrs. Wood asked, returning to her sauce.

"But… what if I made things awkward between me and him?"

Mrs. Wood looked over her shoulder and saw Hannah's worried expression. She again stood in front of Hannah. "Sweetie, is this about your crush on Oliver?"

"What? You know?" Hannah yelped.

Mrs. Wood laughed again; she took Hannah's hands in hers. "Hannah, I may be older, but I remember what it was like to have a crush on boys. Believe it or not I can still pick out when a girl likes a boy." She squeezed her hands encouragingly. "You'll never know if he likes you back unless you do something. And you can't wait around forever. You of all people know how quickly life can change. Your mother, and myself, raised you to live without regrets. If you didn't do something now and you let Oliver get away to another girl, could you live with that knowing you never did anything?"

"No," Hannah murmured.

"Then at least let him know," Mrs. Wood said, letting go of Hannah's hands. "The worst that can happen is things are weird for a little bit. I'm sure by summer it'd all be fixed."

"Do you know if he likes me?" Hannah asked, wanting to have at least someone else's reassurance that she wasn't about to go and make a fool of herself in front of her best friend.

Mrs. Wood laughed. "Hannah, that would be cheating."

"Come on!" Hannah pleaded. She got off the counter and stood next to Mrs. Wood. "I'll do anything! Tell me!"

"Go find out on your own," Mrs. Wood directed, shooing Hannah away. Hannah sighed and rolled her eyes. "Don't be like that. I'm trying to help you."

Hannah didn't look very convinced. "If you really wanted to help me, you'd tell me if Oliver liked me back," she tried, but Mrs. Wood was still firm and shook her head no. "Oh fine! You don't love me. I understand."

Back in the family room, Oliver and Terah turned their heads in the direction of the kitchen where they heard Mrs. Wood's laughter. Hannah came around the corner, her head bent down and lip sticking out. She collapsed onto the leather ottoman and pretended to sob, but the giggles they kept hearing were a dead giveaway.

"Wot did me ma do?" Oliver asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"S– She doesn't l-l-love me!" Hannah cried, trying to stifle another giggle, causing her shoulders to shake a little as she held it in.

"There, there," Terah said, patting Hannah on the back.

"When's dinner?" Oliver asked, trying to change the subject. "I mean, we should get some food in Hannah before her stomach turns on her and starts eating her insides."

Hannah rolled her eyes at Oliver. "Why do you have to be such a jerk?"

"Why do yeh have ta have a stomach wit a mind o' its own?"

"Children! Stop picking at each other and just get along!" Terah yelled.

"Yes, Mum…"

* * *

And DONE! Just kidding, there will be more, I promise. I'm not gonna give a time frame because it seems like when I do I end up lying to you all. So I will update as soon as I can. I will at least give you this, it won't be another six months.

Until next time...


	16. Chapter 16

I'm baaaaack. Have you missed me? Well here's the new chapter! Hope everyone's been having a great summmer!

* * *

Chapter 16

Oliver, Kaden, Raheem, and Danniell banged into their dormitory and collapsed onto their beds. Oliver moaned and stretched, his back cracking. All of them were tired and stiff from the long trip back to school. Kaden yawned loudly and buried his head in his pillow.

"G'night!" Kaden mumbled to no one in particular.

Raheem rolled onto his side to face Oliver. "Hey, did you do anything yet?"

"About what?" Oliver mumbled, his eyes half closed.

Danniell threw his pillow at Oliver. "Oh shut it. You know what he's talking about. Did you do anything about Hannah?"

"Can we talk abou' this tomorra?" Oliver moaned, exhausted. He took Danniell's pillow and, rather than toss it back to his roommate, tucked the pillow under his head and closed his eyes.

But the mere mention of Hannah had Kaden's attention. He sat straight up and crossed the room to Oliver's bed. He snagged the pillow out from Oliver's head, who opened his eyes to glare at Kaden angrily. Kaden smirked and handed the pillow to Danniell, who was also standing by Oliver's bed too.

"I thought yeh was tired," he muttered to himself.

"We're gonna talk about this now," Danniell said. Oliver kicked his foot at Danniell to get him to go away. Danniell rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Are you really gonna be like that? Come on, just tell us if you at least kissed her."

Oliver wanted to scream, he was so annoyed with them. He was dead tired and all he wanted to do was close his eyes and go to sleep. Whenever Kevin or Andrew kept him up Oliver didn't think twice about taking a shot below the belt, but Kaden and Danniell weren't family. However, Oliver was seriously considering talking with his dad about adopting them…

"Go away."

"It's a simple yes or no answer," Kaden replied, grinning like an idiot.

"No, it ain't!"

"Did you?" Danniell asked again.

"Shut up!"

"At least tell us if something happened."

"I hate yeh so much."

"We're not gonna let you go to sleep."

"Yeh are the wors' friends evah."

"Then why do you hang out with us?"

"I don' know, bu' I'm considerin' never talkin' ta yeh again."

Kaden and Danniell grinned at each other as Oliver rolled over in his bed and got to his feet. Grumbling, he went over to his trunk, opened it, and took out a pair of sweatpants. He got rid of his shirt and jeans and pulled the sweatpants on before heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Raheem asked as Oliver pulled the door open.

"Away from yeh so I can get some sleep," Oliver grumbled, slamming the door behind himself.

Oliver stomped down the stairs and collapsed onto the couch. He curled up on his side, stuffed his head under a pillow, and was just drifting on the edge of sleep when someone said, "Oliver?"

"Wot could yeh possibly want wi'h me now?" he roared, throwing the pillow across the room. He jumped up to see who had spoken, and immediately wished he hadn't yelled. Hannah was standing just a few feet away, looking confused and slightly hurt. "I didna mean tha'."

"What's got your boxers in a knot?" she asked, smirking.

Oliver sat back down and put his head in his hands. "I'm exhausted, and Kaden won't let me sleep. So I came down here."

Hannah sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek and rested her head against his shoulder. "Do you want to come sleep in my room?"

"Nah, yeh hog the bed," Oliver teased.

"Fine, sleep down here. What do I care?" she said, jumping out of his lap.

He grabbed her wrist before she could get away from him. "I'm sorry, Hannah. Can I sleep in yer room?"

"Do I hog the bed?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Oliver stood up and hugged her. "O' course yeh do. Yer just selfish."

"You're so mean, Oliver. Why do I love you again?" she asked as they made their way to the girls' stairs. Hannah started up the stairs, but stopped when Oliver didn't follow her. "Come on, aren't you coming?"

"Guys ain't allowed up there," he pointed out. "Remember what happened to Raheem last year?"

Raheem had tried to get up to the girls' rooms to go bother Nanda. Obviously, he didn't make it. The memory still reduced Kaden to a laughing fit, remembering how Raheem had slid head first back into the common room after the stairs had melted into a slide.

"You are if you're with a girl," Hannah explained, reaching out a hand.

Oliver took it and, rather hesitantly, walked up to the step she was on. When nothing happened, he relaxed and let Hannah lead the way upstairs to her dorm. Her room was dark and quiet; her roommates were obviously asleep. Hannah pressed her finger to her lips, signaling that he should be quiet too. She guided him to her bed, which was right next to one of the windows. Oliver sat down on her bed while she opened her trunk and pulled out her pajamas.

"Close your eyes," she said.

"It's dark," Oliver complained, but obliged. When he felt her sit next to him, he opened his eyes again. He could just barely make out her profile in the weak light. "Are yeh tired?"

Hannah shrugged. "A bit. Not as tired as you, though, that's for sure."

Oliver grinned and slung his arm around her shoulder. "I nee' ta stop hangin' ou' with people until three in the mornin'."

Giggling, Hannah nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that'd be a good idea. Come on let's go to bed." She pushed Oliver off before pulling the sheets down and climbing into bed. Oliver joined her a second later. Hannah rested her head on Oliver's shoulder and tapped her fingertips against his chest. "What were Kaden and Danniell doing anyways to bug you?"

"I'll tell yeh in the mornin'," he mumbled, already half asleep.

"No you won't!"

The only response she got was a snore.

* * *

The next morning when the boys' alarms went off, Kaden was surprised when he opened his eyes and saw that Oliver's bed hadn't been slept in. He glanced over at Danniell and Raheem who were both steadily sleeping through the alarm. Kaden sat up and threw his pillow at Danniell's head. Danniell grunted a little and rolled over.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kaden muttered.

"Think there can be one morning when you don't hurt your friends?" Percy Weasley asked from his bed.

Of course the little prat was already dressed and ready for the day.

Kaden rolled his eyes. "I don't recall asking you for your opinion."

"I don't recall telling you to throw pillows at me," Danniell grumbled. He pushed himself up so that he was sitting crosslegged on his bed. He rubbed his eyes to get rid of the sleep there and ran a hand through his blond hair. "Morning already?"

"Yeah, and have you noticed Oliver ain't here still?" Kaden demanded, pointing at the empty bed.

Danniell shrugged, still half asleep. He yawned loudly and stretched his arms before glancing over at Oliver's bed. "Maybe he went to sleep in the common room," he suggested. "I mean, we weren't letting him go to bed anytime soon last night."

He and Kaden exchanged evil smirks at the memory of it.

"You kept me and Eric up last night with that," Percy cut in.

Kaden whipped around. "Were we talking with you?"

Danniell and Eric both sighed, both of them too exhausted to even try to shut their friend up. Percy and Kaden never saw eye to eye, mostly because Percy was the quiet, clean, studious boy and Kaden… well… was not. There had been plenty of fights between the two of them, usually about Kaden being too loud at night or Percy tidying up and moving Kaden's things. It had gotten so bad in third year that Raheem ended up switching beds with Kaden to get rid of some of the tension.

Speaking of Raheem…

"What are you two fighting about? We've been up for fifteen minutes?" Raheem hollered into his pillow so that it actually came out very muffled.

Kaden raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize he was up," he muttered.

Danniell ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his eyes. Yawning deeply, he rolled out of bed and pulled his robes out so he could get dressed. Kaden followed suit and dressed as well. Once Danniell was ready, he glanced over at Raheem's bed and saw that he was still sleeping. He picked up one of his books and threw it at Raheem's head; he grunted in his sleep and rolled over.

"Raheem, wake up or we're setting Nanda loose on you," Danniell said.

Raheem sat up in his bed, yawned, and stretched. "I'm up. I'm up."

Danniell tossed robes at Raheem, who tried to grab them and missed. Kaden scoffed as his friend struggled into his robes. "Do we need to dress you?"

"Why're you in such a rush to get moving this morning?" Raheem demanded as he tried to untangle his clothes. Once he had everything figured out and on he got up and headed for the door. "Come on, let's go find where Oliver is."

"You think he finally did something last night?" Danniell asked as the three of them descended down the stairs.

"Don't get my hopes up," Kaden mumbled back, slugging his friend in the shoulder. They had reached the bottom of the stairs. "Alright, where's the cowardly git?"

"Found him," Raheem said, walking over to a couch by the window. Oliver and Hannah were already stretched out on it, Hannah reading a book and Oliver continually pushing her in the side with his big toe. "Oliver, what are you doing?"

"Buggin' her," he explained, poking her again.

"It's only eight in the morning. Can't you wait until at least lunch?" Raheem asked, exasperated. Sometimes he felt like the only one who didn't act like he was five years old.

Oliver shrugged and jabbed his toe in her side again. Hannah scowled, snapped her book shut, and pointed her finger at him. The tip of her finger glowed bright green; she flicked her finger off her thumb and the bright marble of magic bounced right off the middle of Oliver's forehead.

"Ouch," he mumbled, rubbing the spot.

"Smooth," Danniell said, crossing his arms. "Can we go eat? I'm hungry."

Oliver pushed himself off the couch to stand by Raheem. "Let's go," he said, heading for the portrait hole. However, before he could take more than two steps, Raheem had grabbed Oliver's upper arm to hold him back. "Wot?"

"Nanda…" Raheem said slowly, as if it was obvious.

Oliver rolled his eyes and shook his head. "She's a'ready down a' breakfas'."

"Why?"

"Because she's hungry. Like me," Danniell moaned, his stomaching growling loudly. Kaden laughed. "Shut up, you. Let's go."

The five of them made their way to the Great Hall, Danniell leading the group. He was the first one at the Gryffindor table and grabbed some bacon before he had even sat down next to Nanda, who gave him a look of disgust. Danniell just shrugged and shoved more food into his mouth.

"Boys," Nanda muttered as she picked at her eggs.

"Now, that's not fair. You're just generalizing because you're friends with us," Danniell said, but it came out more as "Na… no far… Ya just jeje 'cause ya fra wit mus."

Nanda leaned over and whispered to Hannah, "Is it bad that I can actually understand what he said?"

Hannah shook her head. "No, not really."

Nanda frowned. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Danniell! Maybe I wanted bacon!" Kaden yelled, bring Nanda back to reality.

Danniell swallowed his mouthful of food with some difficulty and said, "Calm your pants. Here." He twisted around in his seat and poked Jennifer Klerson in the back. She turned around, raising an eyebrow. "You girls gonna eat your bacon?"

"Haven't you had enough," Joanna Erhrt asked, spotting the empty bacon plate.

"Kaden's being a baby," he explained. "Please? You girls don't have to put up with him all day."

Jennifer agreed it was better to calm Kaden down and handed over the plate. Danniell smiled in thanks and turned around in his seat, handed the plate to Kaden, who grinned and shoved eight pieces in his mouth. Danniell appeared a little disgruntled at Kaden's lack of table manners and glanced over at Nanda. She turned her nose up at him as if to say, "You're just the same."

When the bell rang, no one was quite ready to go to class. There was more of a drag in their steps as they made their way down to the freezing dungeons for Double Potions. The six of them split up; Oliver, Hannah, and Raheem sat together while Kaden, Danniell, and Nanda sat down behind them. Professor Snape was brooding as usual at the front of the classroom as if he too wasn't ready for the lesson. Oliver didn't dare to hope that maybe Snape would go easy on them, no matter how out of it the Potions Master seemed. As soon as the final bell rang, Snape stood up and whipped out his wand so that the board spelled out _Antidotes_. There was a collective, though quiet, groan from the class.

"Silence," Snape said, the threat of detention evident.

Immediately there was silence.

"Now, as I stated before the end of last term, we will begin antidotes this semester. I suggest that you take this all very seriously," he stated sternly. He waved his wand again and directions appeared on the board. "You may begin."

The class fell into its usual mode of general silence as everyone was focusing on the difficult directions for making a general antidote. Hannah frowned at her text book as she read the beginning steps, taking careful note of any particularly difficult directions. In theory, Potions class wasn't all that hard, as anyone could follow directions. It was the actual practice that made the class terrible. Some had a harder time at it than others.

Especially Katie Wade, who succeeded in, once again, blowing up the contents of her antidote thirty minutes into class. As if on cue, those around Katie immediately held up books and binders to protect their faces from the flying projectiles that had at one point in time been potions ingredients. Katie turned a bright shade of red, mumbled a very quiet sorry, and quickly waved her wand to clean up the mess.

Snape looked up from his desk, clearly exasperated. "Again, Wade?"

"Sorry, Professor," Katie said, starting over.

Hannah felt bad for her but didn't allow herself to be too distracted; she didn't want to cause another explosion. That, and she was sure Snape wouldn't be as forgiving towards her as he was to Katie. And the only reason he would let explosions from Katie slide was that she quickly cleaned them up whenever they occurred, and the fact that this was the fourth year in a row and he probably had given up hope on ever getting through a term without an accident from her.

Two hours later, with the beginning of their antidotes set aside so they could simmer all weekend, the class rejoined the rest of the school in the slightly warmer floors above the dungeon. They would have all preferred to go straight to the common room and relax for the rest of the day, but Nanda whined about the essay they had for History of Magic and begged Raheem to go with her to the library. So Raheem forced Kaden (literally) who grabbed Danniell by the collar. It was a very strange scene with little Nanda leading the line of three clearly unhappy teenage boys.

Oliver glanced down at Hannah who was trying to repack her bag so all of her papers would fit inside. "Do you think we should go with them?" he asked once she had finished.

Hannah shook her head no, but said, "We might as well. The gang is all gone."

"Well you and I could just hang out," Oliver said as he started to follow Danniell's flailing arms. "You know, like how we did before we met these psychos."

"Yes, but we both know Kaden will cry about it later if you didn't join him in the torture that is the deadly library."

"I thought that was why he grabbed Danniell."

"And besides, we had all break together to just be the two of us," Hannah continued. They turned the corner and she saw just in time a Dungbomb come flying at them. She quickly summoned her magic so that prank redirected itself and hit an unsuspecting sixth year Hufflepuff. Down at the end of the corridor two redheads ran in the opposite direction. "I swear, Charlie's little demon brothers need to quit it."

"Oh come on, I like them," Oliver said. "Would you rather they were stuck up like Percy?" He put his arm around her shoulder and steered her along the hall, trying to avoid the masses of people on either side.

"Well, their cute factor is running short on me," Hannah said, still unhappy about the almost disaster she avoided.

Oliver squeezed her shoulder. "I'll always protect you, even from Dungbombs."

* * *

Alright, we all know how this works. You've read my chapter, now I beg you to review. So please hit that little button. It doesn't have to be anything deep or long, just a few words if you liked it or not and maybe what you would like to see happen. I do take suggestions into account when I'm writing. Well I hope to have the next chapter up VERY soon, mostly since I've already written probably like 85 percent of it. Anyways, that's all for now folks, and keep a look out for another update.

Toodles


	17. Chapter 17

Hey, you realize it's only been like two months since I last uploaded? That has to be like a record for me! Anyways, here you go! I'm not telling you anything that's gonna happen, so just go crazy.

* * *

Chapter 17

The weekend was a huge relief for everyone as no one ever liked the first week after returning from a holiday. Kaden was especially glad that he could finally put his newfound talents for charming anything so that it would stay locked until he removed the countercurse that he had no worries about Nanda barging in their dorm room to wake one of the four of them up for one of her ridiculous ideas. Due to their alarm clock being locked out, the four boys were to be found sound asleep at eleven in the morning. It was only when Raheem, who was in a very deep slumber, let out a gigantic snore that caused Danniell to jerk awake and roll off his bed with a huge crash.

"Who died?" Kaden moaned into his pillow.

"Me…"

Kaden grunted and curled up on his other side.

"Wot time is't," Oliver grumbled, rubbing his eyes of sleep as he tried to read the clock.

Danniell grabbed a handful of his blankets, yanking them onto the floor so he wouldn't freeze. "Too early."

Raheem stirred in his bed and said, "I'm hungry."

"Nooo," Kaden whined, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. It was a very rare occasion he ever got to sleep so late. "Bed!"

"Fooooood!" Raheem demanded.

Kaden dug deeper under his covers, wrapping a pillow around his head to keep his ears covered from any further noise. "Go away," Kaden muttered as if he was praying. Raheem must have taken pity on him because he stopped complaining about food and went back to sleep. Silence fell on the dorm room again as the boys went back to bed.

* * *

Hannah opened her eyes and found herself in her old room that she had shared with Terah when they were younger. She sat up and looked around. Next to her bed was the tall bookshelf, stacked with her two hundred or so books; against the wall to her left was Terah's bed, and on the floor next to it was the usual pile of stuffed animals that Terah would fall asleep in every night. Hannah pushed herself off the bed and peeked out the window that faced the backyard; she could see the patio and the chair where Lily would sit and read while Hannah and Terah would run around with James. In the back corner of the yard there was the swing set the twins had played on just hours before they were orphaned.

From downstairs, Hannah heard the sound of the refrigerator being opened and something rattling on a shelf. Then a soft click as the door opened and footsteps across the wooden floor of the kitchen. Finally, she heard two people murmuring and instantly recognized their voices.

She ran out of her room and down the stairs a little too quickly that she tripped and would have fallen if someone hadn't caught her. She looked up into the blue-gray eyes of her father, who was wearing his signature smirk.

"Careful, sweetheart," he said as he righted her up. "I don't know where you got your lack of coordination."

Normally, Hannah would have pouted at her dad for teasing her. But she was too stunned to say anything. Instead she stayed at the bottom of the staircase and took in the rest of her surroundings. Lily was still busily preoccupied looking in the fridge for a jar for whatever crazy cooking scheme she had going through her mind. Harry, still only a toddler, was on the floor playing with the cat. A younger version of Terah, the one Hannah remembered before Hogwarts, was sitting in her chair, watching Harry and the cat carefully. It seemed like she had good intentions as Harry tugged on the cat's tail; it yowled and darted away and up the stairs.

Hannah glanced at her reflection in the glass door that led outside to the patio. She realized that she too was young, as if the last nine years had never occurred. But she didn't care, all that mattered was she had her family back.

Harry was about to start crying since his playmate had run off. Hannah quickly went to the family room and grabbed a handful of his blocks and a teddy bear. She sat down next to Harry and offered him the toys. Harry smiled at her, took one of the blocks, and promptly threw it at her forehead.

"Ow! You ungrateful midget!" Hannah cursed.

Harry clapped his hands together and giggled. James laughed as well, until Hannah glared at him.

"What's the matter, baby girl?"

"Don't encourage him," Hannah mumbled as she climbed into her seat.

"Hannah," someone said softly. She looked around curiously to see who had spoken… maybe it had been her mother. But Lily was busily flipping through her cookbook. It obviously wasn't Harry, who was now chewing on the teddy's nose. "Hannah."

"Did you say something, Terah?"

Terah looked up from her toast and shook her head. "No…"

"HANNAH!"

Hannah sat straight up in her bed and promptly smacked her forehead into Nanda's. She fell back into her pillows, pressing the palm of her hand against her forehead. There was going to be a bump the size of a plum on her forehead, she just knew it.

"Owie, owie, owie," she mumbled.

Nanda looked just as bad. She sat down on the edge of Hannah's bed and was rubbing her bruise with vigor.

"Why were you leaning over me?" Hannah asked.

"I didn't think you'd sit up that quickly," Nanda explained.

Hannah suddenly realized that it was the weekend. "And _why_ are you waking me up?"

Nanda brought her hand down from her forehead. She bit her lip guiltily and scuffed her feet against the floor. "Well… the boys locked the door to their room… so I couldn't get Raheem up…"

"And you figured you'd wake me up instead," Hannah finished for her. "Didn't you try Alohomora?"

"It didn't work!"

"Nanda, the boys aren't that smart. Are you sure you tried Alohomora or did you just throw your wand at the door?"

"Hannah!"

"Okay, okay," Hannah said as she pushed herself out of bed. She tugged on her old gray hoodie and pulled her hair into a ponytail. "Come on, let's go check out this door."

Nanda led the way, practically flying down the stairs. By the time Hannah reached the bottom step, Nanda was already a dozen or so steps up the boys' set of stairs. Hannah followed after her and finally met her on the landing outside the fourth year boys' door. She tried the handle, but it was locked fast, just as Nanda had said. Before Nanda could give her a smug look of "I told you so," Hannah whipped out her wand and tried Alohomora. The door refused to move.

"What the hell did those boys do?" Hannah asked, completely confused.

"See?"

"Hush you," she said. Then she started pounding on the door. "Oliver! Git yer lazy arse up and open this god forsaken door! Oliver! I know yeh can hear me!"

"Go away…"

"Oliver!"

"Nooo…" Oliver moaned.

"So help me God, yeh wait til I git me hands on yeh!"

"Oh is that a promise?"

"OLIVER!"

"Hannah! SHUT UP!" three other voices screamed at her.

Hannah frowned angrily and clenched her hand in a fist. Bright green light glowed from the gaps between her fingers as she condensed her magic in the palm of her hand. When she opened her hand, a small, dense ball of green light hovered an inch or so from her palm. She shoved the light into the lock; the mechanisms turned and the door creaked open. Smirking, Hannah stepped into the boys' rooms.

"I don't know what to do with her!" Kaden complained when he saw Hannah in their dorm.

Oliver opened his eyes and smirked back at her. "Heeeey… Wot's goin' on, Banni?"

Hannah grabbed Oliver by his ear and yanked him out of bed so that he was sprawled out on the floor. Then she straddled him and pinned his arms down with her knees. "Don't you ever lock that door again. I enjoy sleeping."  
"So do I!"

"Oliver!"

"Okay, okay."

"So… can we get breakfast?" Danniell asked. He was the only one, apart from Nanda, standing. He smirked knowingly. "Unless, of course, you two have got some things you need to figure out."

"Huh?"

"Danniell, don't even bother," Kaden said. He too was, albeit slowly, getting out of bed. Yawning and stretching, he joined Danniell and looked down at the two. "They're never gonna admit it. Just drop it."

"Drop wot?" Hannah demanded. Kaden shrugged, meandered over to his trunk, and started to get dressed. Curious, Hannah jumped off Oliver and followed him. "Wot are yeh talking 'bout?"

Kaden appeared indifferent as he tugged a shirt on. Hannah waited impatiently until he was done getting dressed. He turned to her and said, "If you're too dumb to notice, then it's not my job to tell you. All of us have had to deal with this thing," he waved his arms around to emphasize _the thing_, "for like six months. Do you know how exhausting that is?"

Hannah, who obviously wasn't getting it, just raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Kaden groaned angrily. "I'm surrounded by fucking morons!" And he stormed out of the room, Danniell following closely behind.

In an attempt to diffuse the tension, Nanda said, "Well shall we go to breakfast?"

"Yeah let's go," Hannah agreed. She looked over her shoulder at the unmoving lump that was Raheem. "You might have to get that one up. I think he's still asleep."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the group was again reunited, this time in the Great Hall. Kaden already had a plate piled high with bacon and scrambled eggs while Danniell was working on his usual bowl of cereal. Oliver and Hannah sat down opposite of them, next to David and Tank. David smirked at his cousin, who only looked half- awake.

"Long night?"

"Shut up."

"So did you kiss her yet?"

"I hate you."

"What's he saying?" Hannah asked as she took a bite of toast, her eyebrows raised. David just shook his head and ignored her. She frowned and smacked Oliver's leg. "What's going on?"

"Not now, Hannah," Oliver shooed her away. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes vigorously. "David, not this mornin', please?"

"Ah why not, lil' Ollie?"

"Hey, we're annoying Oliver this morning?" Kevin said loudly as he sat down. Seconds later, Andrew was leaning across the table. "Always a fun activity. Hey, did yeh hear the news?"

"Wot are yeh talkin' 'bout, Kevin? I've only been up a half hour," Oliver moaned, folding his arms and hiding his face in them.

"I matched!"

"To what?" David asked, his curiosity peaked enough that his attention was distracted from Oliver.

Andrew grinned and pointed at himself. "The idiot matched to me. He's gonna be giving me a kidney."

Oliver picked his head up from the table. "Good to hear yeh won't be dead."

"I wasna gonna be dyin'," Andrew complained, but everyone was smiling. David high-fived him and Kevin rumpled his hair. "Besides, all yeh fools would miss me."

"We're eating here today?" Mitchell hollered, squeezing in between David and Oliver.

"No, you all need to move to your table," Kaden indicated behind himself. "No nerdy Ravenclaws over here. We don't want your kind," he directed at Derek and Froggie who had come over to join them. "There's no room!"

"Shut up, Kaden!" Raheem shouted. "Oy, Derek, pass that plate down here."

Hannah frowned as the boys yelled back and forth so that each person could be heard over the other. She glanced over at Nanda, who had shifted her attention to talking with Katie and Rihana rather than fight to be heard with the boys. Hannah chewed the inside of her lip, debating on what to do. Her decision was easy to make after Kevin knocked over his glass of pumpkin juice and it spilled in her lap. Hannah jumped out of her seat and quickly directed her wand at her skirt to get rid of the stain.

"I'm gonna go get some air," she said and made her way for the Entrance Hall.

She climbed up the marble staircase and let her subconscious guide her direction. She didn't realize where she was until she was outside in the courtyard by the clock tower. No one was around, which was a relief to her ears. She walked over to the fountain and stood on the edge of the wall surrounding the frozen water.

"What are you doing?"

Hannah almost fell off the wall and had to catch herself on one of the pillars to keep from landing in the ice. She looked over her shoulder and saw Marcus Flint standing by the entrance to the tower.

"Nothing. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing," Marcus repeated, teasing her. He closed the difference between the two of them. "I'm not gonna lie," Marcus said as he sat down on the stone bench, "I'm surprised to see you away from your body guards. They're always following after you."

Hannah tried to hide a smile. She continued walking around the edge of the wall. "I have a few tricks to get rid of them."

"You run away?"

"No!" Hannah yelled, grabbing onto a pillar and swinging on it so that she was looking down on Marcus. "Okay… yes."

Marcus laughed and shook his head. "Until they find you. And then you keep running, right?"

Hannah wrapped her arms around the pillar and tilted her head back to look at the sky. "It's really not a bad thing. They're just watching out for me. They're like my brothers."

"But Oliver wants to date you. So does that make it incest?" he asked. Hannah was shocked by his words and let go of the pillar. Luckily, Marcus acted quickly and caught her before she could fall and hurt herself. "Can you stop falling around me?" Hannah righted herself, but Marcus still held onto her. "Careful, there's ice. You might slip," he teased.

"Shut up," Hannah said, stepping out of his hold. She jumped back up onto the stone edge of the well and commenced walking around it.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Marcus asked.

"If I wanted someone to nag at me, I'd ask Oliver," Hannah said.

"If he nags at you, why do you have a crush on him?"

Hannah had to grab onto another pillar to keep herself from falling again. "How do you know that?" she demanded.

Marcus grinned and said, "I'm not as thick as Oliver. Neither is the rest of the school. We all know you two are just beating around the bush."

"I'm getting to it for Christ's sake!" Hannah snapped at him.

He held up his hands in defense. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just saying, everyone knows it."

Hannah leaped off the wall and stood next to him. "Well, you can go tell everyone that I'm going to ask him out and they can all shut up." She poked him in the chest a half dozen times to emphasize her point.

"Yes, ma'am," he teased. From across the frozen courtyard, he heard the doors open and close. He looked over her head and saw Oliver coming towards them. "And here's your chance."

"What?" Hannah said, turning around. She spotted Oliver and looked back at Marcus. "Wait, no, I'm not ready. Where… where are you going?!" she yelled at him. Marcus was already halfway across the courtyard. He gave her his signature smirk and a half wave before disappearing.

"Hey, wot're yeh doin' out here?" Oliver asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "And why was yeh talkin' wi'h Flint?" He started to lead her back inside. "C'mon, it's freezin' out here."

Hannah didn't object; the tips of her fingers and nose were starting to go numb. Oliver held the door open for her and together they walked down the corridors. Hannah was quiet as she was busy thinking of how to tell Oliver exactly how she felt. He still had his arm around her while they made their way to the common room. After a few minutes they had reached the portrait hole. Oliver gave the password and led her to the couch and sat down.

"Wot're yeh thinkin' 'bout?" he asked.

Hannah sat next to him, tucking her legs under her. "Just… something I talked with Terah about over break."

Oliver nodded his head to say he understood. He stretched out on the couch and put his arm around her shoulders. Hannah relaxed into his side, resting her head against his chest. Oliver breathed deeply; he knew he had to say something.

"Ah… listen, Hannah… I –"

"HANNAH! Raheem is bothering me!" Nanda shrieked from across the room.

Hannah jerked out of Oliver's hold and knelt on the couch, her arms slung over the back. "Raheem! Quit pestering her!"

"I didn't do anything!" Raheem objected.

Kaden and Danniell, who had just entered the portrait hole, were looking between Hannah and Oliver on the couch and Raheem and Nanda sitting at a table. From what they could make out, Nanda had been trying to make a house of cards, at least until Raheem had done something to make it fall. They also saw that Oliver looked frustrated; Kaden put two and two together and realized what Oliver had been about to do.

"Raheem, I'm gonna kill you!" Kaden yelled. He stomped over to the table, plopping down into the other chair. Raheem, who was extremely confused, tried to explain, but Kaden said, "We know you love picking at Nanda, but why today? Why now?"

"It was an accident!" Raheem said. He gestured at the pile of cards. "All I did was stretch my legs, and I tapped the table."

"No! You were fidgeting on purpose," Nanda argued, looking very smug that Kaden was on her side for once, completely oblivious as to why Kaden was upset.

Danniell, who had followed Kaden to the table, leaned against Raheem's chair and said, "Nanda, you can't really fidget on purpose. Can't you just accept that it was an accident?"

Seeing that Danniell and Kaden were, for once, intervening to stop another fight between Nanda and Raheem, Hannah sat back down and laid her head on Oliver's chest again. She glanced up at Oliver, who was frowning.

"What did you want to say?" she asked. "I mean, before Nanda had a mini freak out."

"It's… ah… it's nothin'," he said.

Hannah sat up so that she was looking at him eye to eye. "Well if it's nothing, tell me what you were going to say."

Oliver got up and faked a yawn. "Um… I'm actually kinda tired. I'm gonna go ta bed. Night." And he headed up the stairs.

Hannah glared after him for a moment before deciding she wasn't taking this for an answer. She ran after him, up the stairs, and opened the door a little harder than she meant to so that it banged against the wall. Oliver, who was in the middle of changing, quickly yanked on his sweatpants so that he wasn't naked. It didn't make much of a difference, considering the room was just barely lit by moonlight, but Oliver still felt like he should try to at least not be a pervert to her.

"Would yeh stop doin' tha'?"

"There's nothing you've got I haven't seen before," Hannah said.

"Yeh know, things change down there when yer older!" Oliver said. He motioned at her. "Jus' like yeh! For Merlin's sake, those boobs sprung up like overnight! Yeh didna have 'em when we was eight. So wot makes yeh think I still got a two inch penis?!"

"Well if you would've just told me what you wanted to say downstairs there'd be no need for me to barge up here," Hannah snapped.

Oliver shrugged and pulled down the covers of his bed. He sat down on the mattress and motioned for her to come over. She sat next to him, crossed her arms, and glared at him. He knew she wasn't planning on letting it drop.

"Are you going to tell me?" she demanded.

Oliver shook his head. "Probably not."

Hannah slapped his shoulder. "Oliver! You have to tell me!"

He held up his hands to deflect her blows. "Stop tha'! Hannah!"

When she didn't stop, he caught her wrists with his hands. He pushed her down onto the bed and lay on top of her, pinning her arms to her chest. For added measure, he pushed her legs apart to prevent her from kneeing him in his "family jewels." Because he had practically all of his weight pressing down on her, Hannah was having trouble breathing. This made her even more frustrated.

"You're crushing me," she hissed.

Oliver put his elbows on the mattress so that he was now supporting himself. "Well, yeh was hittin' me an' it hurt."

"Oh please, that's nothing compared to what Kevin does to you."

Oliver grinned and rested his forehead against Hannah's so that their noses were almost touching. "But why d'yeh have ta hit me all the time?"

"You wouldn't tell me what you wanted to say," she said softly.

He sighed deeply and rolled off her to lay by her side. "It's nothin', Banni. Really."

Hannah huffed unhappily. Oliver didn't have to look to know that her forehead was wrinkled up and that she had scrunched up her nose. He could mimic the expression himself he was so familiar with it. He felt her shifting on the bed and soon she was lying across his chest. She drummed her fingers against his chest in time to his heartbeat. Oliver sighed and ran his hand up and down her back.

"Please tell me?"

Oliver took his hand in hers, lining up the fingers as if to measure the lengths of each other's fingers. He sighed again and laced his fingers with hers.

"Yer no' gonna shut it until I tell yeh, are yeh?" he asked.

"Nope, so you might as well tell me now," she responded, squeezing his hand.

Oliver closed his eyes, thinking of the worst case scenario. However, he knew he couldn't put it off. It would be better for her to hear it from him than from Kaden or Mitchell or Kevin.

"Hannah… I like yeh."

It was quiet in the dormitory for a moment. Oliver felt like the sentence he said was echoing in the silence. After a moment, Hannah sat up. Oliver held her hand, afraid to let her go. He was so sure she was going to run out of the room, freaked out that the closest thing she had to a brother had a crush on her. He was stupid to think that they could date. They were only friends, nothing more. It was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid…

And then Hannah kissed him.

It wasn't long; it barely last a second. But it felt… right. There wasn't any other word to describe it. Oliver smiled at her.

"So… I take tha' as yeh like me too?"

"Yes, you stupid git."

* * *

So aren't you happy that they're finally together? I sure am!

Please review! They really mean a lot!


	18. Chapter 18

And it's here! Ta-Da!

Again, I'm so sorry it takes me forever to upload. Please don't think it's on hiatus, I really am trying to work on it! There's just so many other ideas floating around in my brain, on top of what I need for school!

Anyways, I've taken some suggestions and I'm definitely moving things along. I'm really sorry if you've been kinda bored, cause it seems to be a lot of day to day things. But I promise, this moves a lot faster. Actually, it probably skips ahead at least two months. Cause it was winter last chapter and at the end of this it's kinda spring... so like March ish? I'm really tired if you can't tell...

Well I hope you like this. I've already got an idea for next chapter, which will be Terah and Hannah moments! Yay! I'm actually hoping to have that up within a week. Now that I've said that it'll be another 9 months... that's not funny. In all honesty, I'm really got a break through in my writers block and I want to write more of this story. So thank you for reading and thank you so much for reviews. They really mean a lot and they help me know if you guys like or don't like the way things are going, whether it's the pace or a character or anything like that.

I think I've said enough now so I'll let you go so you can enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 18

The news that Oliver Wood and Hannah Parker were now dating spread around the school overnight. By the next morning, Mitchell had three people tell him from the time it took for him go from his common room to the Great Hall. When he got down there, Kevin and Kaden were both doing some sort of jig/river dance in celebration.

"An' yeh found out how?" Mitchell asked, sitting down and helping himself to some scrambled eggs.

Kaden stopped doing whatever it was and said, "Mate, I walked in on them making out. I'm the reason why the whole school knows."

"Hey, it's about time," Kevin said. "It took 'em freakin' forever."

Kaden didn't seem capable of wiping the giant grin off his face. "Maybe Oliver will finally stop being so uptight now and relax now that he isn't all frustrated with her."

Mitchell and Kevin shook their head in disagreement. "Probably not. He's like a mother hen with her," Kevin said. He glanced over at the Entrance Hall and saw Derek walking with Froggie. "Hey! Cousin! Didja here? Them two finally did it!"

Derek laughed as he joined his cousins. "Mate, it's not like they had sex."

"Might as well be," Kaden said. "They didn't notice me walk in."

"And that's why we didn't get to sleep until past midnight." Danniell and Raheem had joined the group as well. All of them, finally having gotten over the news, sat at the table and started to help themselves to breakfast.

"But hey, it's a small price to pay for them to finally stop ignoring the obvious," Raheem pointed out as he tipped ten or so sausages onto his plate.

"Tell me about it," Derek agreed, shoveling cereal into his mouth. "Christmas was a nightmare with those two!"

"Speak of the devil," Mitchell said, motioning to the doors.

Hannah and Oliver had just entered, holding hands, and were making their way to the Gryffindor table.

"Wot?! Yer too good ta sit wi'h us now?" Kevin hollered, causing multiple students to look around to see who he was yelling at.

Oliver gave him the one finger salute before he sat down with Hannah.

"Ya well screw ya! We don' wanna sit wi'h prats like yeh!"

Andrew and David were the last to come in with Nanda tailing behind them. She made to go over to the Gryffindor table, but David caught her wrist and dragged her to Ravenclaw's side. She tried pulling away, but as David was far stronger than her it didn't do much good.

"I don't want to sit with a bunch of boys for breakfast," she whined as David forced her into the spot between Raheem and Kevin.

"Can't yeh jus' give'em a few hours peace alone?" David asked, taking his seat.

"No!"

Kevin slung his arm around her shoulder to keep her in place. "Well, yeh are now."

Nanda stuck her tongue out in retaliation. Kevin, having decided to join in her immaturity, pulled at his cheeks so that he looked more ridiculous than usual. Andrew rolled his eyes and rested his elbow on the table so he could support his head with his hand.

"Oi, Kevin, I got more good news for yeh," he said.

Kevin let go of his cheeks and turned to his cousin. "Wot?"

"Surgery's in two week time. You'll get your scar soon," he said.

Kevin grinned widely. "Think I can ask 'em no' ta be so neat wi'h the stitching?"

Andrew laughed and nodded. "Sure, Kev."

"I need some new girl friends," Nanda mumbled to herself, nibbling on the edge of her toast. Raheem overheard her and raised his eyebrow to question her. She explained, "Well now Hannah's gonna be spending all her free time with Oliver! So I've got to make a new girl friend!"

Raheem shrugged. "I thought you liked hanging out with me. But I guess you don't love me. I get it. I never liked you very much either."

"Raheem!" Nanda whined. She hugged him tightly around the arm. Raheem tried to shake her off. She shook her head furiously, her blonde hair whipping back and forth. She buried her head deeper into his arm, her grip unyielding. "Do you really mean that?"

"Of course not," he explained, patting her shoulder assuringly. Nanda immediately perked up and let go. Her green eyes were sparkling with laughter. "You know I didn't mean it."

Danniell poked her in the back. Nanda jumped in her seat and twisted around, relying on Raheem to protect her. "Besides, she's still gonna hang out with you," Danniell explained. "They've already spent alone time together. You never notice."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm so good at distracting her," Raheem said, wrapping an arm around her and hugging her to his side. Nanda grinned up at him.

"More like he's good at annoying the crap out of her," Kaden mumbled to himself. The others nodded in agreement. Nanda didn't notice as Raheem had just stolen her toast and she was yelling at him to give it back. Yeah, things would go back to normal quickly.

* * *

It ended up only taking a few weeks for the others to get used to the idea of Oliver and Hannah being "a thing," as Kaden put it. While at first it was awkward to see them kiss in the presence of the others, within a month it had resolved and it no longer seemed to bother them. The only person who seemed to have any true issue with the matter had been Charlie; according to his logic Hannah had been making goo-goo eyes at Oliver during the Hufflepuff match, which resulted in him not paying attention and letting in a dozen goals. What Charlie forgot, which may have been due to David crashing into him on accident during a wild play, was that Oliver had taken a Bludger to the head… again and was unconscious for the remainder of the game.

"Hey, a' leas' we won," Oliver said later that evening. Charlie was picking through the Bertie Bott's that Kaden had left behind. "Yeh know, those're fer me."

"Is your name on them?" Charlie demanded, popping a cherry flavored one in his mouth.

"Yeh're the wors' Cap'ain ever," Oliver snipped at him, reaching to grab the box. Charlie held it just out of reach and continued to eat. "I hope yeh git a shite flavored 'un."

"I hope your girlfriend cock-blocks you for the next three years." If his attitude wasn't enough of a giveaway, his face certainly told what flavor he'd just eaten.

Chase laughed and rapped his newly healed hand against Charlie's head. "Hey now mate, don't be jealous you can't find yourself a nice girl."

"I think you're confused," David stated. "Chase, she ain't nice. Hell, she's hardly a girl!" The guys laughed, including Oliver, earning a disgruntled huff from Hannah. "Aw, c'mon now, you know I just tease you."

Hannah tossed her thick braid over her shoulder and crossed her arms, still pretending to be upset. "Have I ever mentioned you're an idiot in your general direction?"

"Yes, quite a number of times," David grinned at her, tossing a licorice wand at her. He rummaged through the box bursting with candy that Kaden and Raheem had brought back from Hogsmeade. "Why don't they ever buy me food?" he complained as he took out a Chocolate Frog.

Oliver rolled his eyes, picking apart a licorice wand of his own. "That's for you, dumbass. I hate those."

"Oh… right!" David said, biting the head off.

* * *

"It's good to have you back, Ollie," Kaden said, sitting down next to him on the bench in the courtyard. "Mostly for entertainment value." He gestured to the bruise on Oliver's neck where the Bouncing Bulb had hit him. "I guess you could lie and say that's a hickey from Hannah."

Nanda knocked Kaden in the back of his head with her stuffed school bag. "That's disgusting, Kaden."

"You're a prude," Kaden bickered with her, rubbing the sore spot.

Raheem grumbled to himself, knowing it was pointless to try and stop the two of them. He sprawled out on the grass, gazing up into the cloudy sky that promised rain soon. He placed his hands under his head, getting comfortable; it would be a while before Kaden and Nanda worked out their differences and the others would have a moment to talk. Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed Danniell's blond head join his level on the ground. He turned his head to see Danniell uncomfortably close to his face.

"Why?!" Raheem shouted, losing his composure and jerking away automatically. "I hate that!"

"Well I couldn't do it to Kaden, now could I?" Danniell asked, smirking manically. "And you're just fun to harass."

Raheem moaned in annoyance. "Why can't I have normal friends?"

"You could always hang out with me."

Raheem glanced up to see Derek Wood and laughed loudly. "My friend, while you're the most…"

"Sane?" Derek offered

"Sane," Raheem agreed, "I still worry that Froggie and Cricket are messing you up mentally."

Derek laughed, nodding his head. He folded his legs to join Danniell and Raheem on the ground. "Well I'm already kinda messed up 'cause me las' name _is_ Wood…"

"You sure it ain't cause of Kevin?" Oliver offered. Derek smirked and rolled his eyes. "Wot you doin' here anyways? Don' yeh have Arithmacy soon?"

Derek shrugged absentmindedly. "It's cancelled. Last minute thing. Nanda, did you hear that?" he shouted at the two that were still arguing. She was in the middle of yelling something and didn't seem to notice. "So when are those two gonna start dating?" he teased.

Raheem and Danniell groaned in unison. "_Please_ don't start on that," Danniell begged. "We just fixed the Oliver and Hannah problem. We don't need another one."

"Hogwarts doesn't need that relationship happening," Raheem pointed out as Kaden put Nanda in a headlock. "Hey. _HEY!_ Kaden, you let her go! You'll hurt her!" He jumped up and crossed the courtyard to pull the two apart. Derek and Danniell watched with mild interest as Raheem took on his usual parental role.

"On a serious note, did you hear that there's a project for Transfiguration?" Derek said, propping his shoulders against his bag so that he could still see Danniell, Oliver, and Hannah. When the others shook their heads no, he continued, "Terah was just telling me about it. I guess in order to get us ready for O.W.L.S., McGonagall wants us to do some extra studying in advance. Terah wasn't all that specific, but I guess we get partners."

"Well, that's not bad," Hannah said. "Oliver, be my partner!"

"Ah, no," Derek interjected. "McGonagall wants some 'interhouse unity'… some Dumbledore stuff… Anyways, your partner can't be from your House. And I'm guessing she ain't gon' let me and Ollie work together either. So I came here to bug one of you other four… and Danniell I've decided you're the most sane. Wanna be partners?"

"Uh… sure? You do all the work?" Danniell asked.

Trying not to be serious, Derek said, "Nah, I figure we'll just drink a lot of butterbeer, do some shots of firewisky, and then see what unfolds."

Danniell held out a hand and clasped Derek's firmly. "Sounds like a plan, good sir!"

* * *

The assignment wasn't really all that difficult as far as assignment went. The ones from Snape would make anyone cringe, so it was definitely a nice change of pace to have an "easier" assignment, though no one would say this was exactly the correct word. "Different" may have been the better choice; an assignment that didn't involve possible poisoning could surely be considered different to anyone, magical or Muggle. The hardest part had been finding partners; Dumbledore was right. Students stuck strongly with their Houses and did not feel comfortable to venture into friendships with other non-House members. Derek had been smart to approach Danniell early and ask before the announcement. In the chaos that followed, some odd partners had been made.

Hannah had of course paired off with Terah; to Oliver and Derek there had been no doubt of who they would partner with. Raheem had lucked out as well with Froggie; Oliver had hoped he could get to Cricket before Kaden did but in the chaos he had somehow been cornered by Janelle and without being completely sure what he was saying had agreed to work with her. Kaden was stuck with some kid named Winston, who he swore he'd never seen before in his life, while Nanda ended up being partnered with Cricket.

"Do you have any idea how lucky you are?" Oliver grumbled later on in the library. "Janelle's an airhead!"

"Oliver, she isn't that bad," Terah argued, sticking up for her friend. "She's just… well a lot like Hannah actually."

"Hey now, I'm not _that_ scatterbrained," Hannah fought back.

Terah carefully turned the yellowed pages of the massive book she had propped against her knees. "Anyways, this project's easy. And we've got two weeks to do it."

Kaden's eyes had glazed over from his potions essay. "Which means thirteen days to put it off. What's the point anyways? We don't have O.W.L.s until next year!" Danniell and Derek agreed halfheartedly as they shuffled through pages of notes. "Ah forget you two. Oliver, wanna go procrastinate."

"No," Oliver mumbled, shoving Kaden away and sticking his fingers in his ears to get some silence. Kaden continued to speak his thoughts out loud as usual, earning disapproving glares from both Oliver and Terah. "Can you put it on silence mode please?"

"Hey, if you don't like it, don't sit with me."

"_You _sat with _me!_" Oliver hissed.

Terah snapped her book shut. "I can't deal with you people talking! Hannah, wanna meet tomorrow and work on this. I need to go clear my head."

"Yeah, sure," Hannah agreed. "See you later," she called as Terah darted between bookshelves to go find a quieter place to browse her book. "Kaden, why do you have to be so loud?" Kaden didn't even pause in his flow of conversation with himself, talking through the rest of his potions essay. "Kaden! Shut up!"

* * *

So you can kinda see where the next chapter will be... anyways I'm hoping to have the next part done with the twins very soon. Then I think this one is almost done. Probably just another two or three chapters and then it'll be done and it's on to year 5. I just realized that I started this when I was in highschool, and now I'm almost done with college. It's crazy that it's taken me this long, and honestly I'm kinda disappointed with myself for all this time it took. But at the same time, I'm definitely starting to get my own feel on how to write so maybe this was a good thing... anyways it'll be a lot easier cause I already have an idea of where the story is gonna go for those.

Again, I really want to thank everyone for reading and for those who review. It really means a lot to me and I want to say thank you so much for putting up with me while I take my (long) time getting chapters up. It's just amazing that I have these very random ideas in my head and that there's people out in the world that like my story and what I'm doing. So thanks again!


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